Eddie Nketiah may have provided Mikel Arteta with the solution to Arsenal's biggest issue in the top-four battle - and that's to increase the firepower in attack for the remaining games of the season.
Last Saturday's 1-0 loss against Southampton was certainly a setback for the Gunners in their quest to qualify for the Champions League once again, as despite dominating proceedings at St Mary's, they paid the ultimate price for switching off at the back once as well as Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe missing big chances.
With Alexandre Lacazette not producing the goods - in terms of putting the ball in the back of the net - this season, that coupled with Arsenal struggling to create more big chances than the likes of Wolves, Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Watford has left Arteta acknowledging that he must come up with a plan to improve his side's goal threat.
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"Well something clicks and instead of the ball hitting the post - like it did twice last week and hit the goalkeeper and gets deflected and goes outside - [instead] it goes in," he said after the Southampton game. "This is very difficult to predict, because to create more - I can’t remember a game where Arsenal has played with this team, where they have created and dominated in a game more and better.
"But the result is what at the end we need to be where we have to be, and if we are not able to do that we aren’t not going to be there - it’s as simple as that. Because you don’t have enough quality to be there, because we have to win football matches and we have to score more goals, and that’s a problem we have at the moment."
With that said, Nketiah might just be the solution to Arsenal's ongoing problems. When speaking on 'The Beautiful Game Podcast' - which was recorded before the Southampton defeat - he was asked about the prospect of playing alongside Lacazette as a pairing and his response may give Arteta the green light to change things up for back-to-back games against Chelsea and Manchester United this week.
"Yes, I really like Laca as a player," he said. "As a striker you can appreciate what he does when you play in the position (how hard it is) and I enjoy playing with Laca. When we are down, for example, last game against Brighton or Palace, I've come on and we switch to kind of like a two upfront.
"It is good, I feel like for most of my career I've played as a one, but when you play in a two with someone like Laca who understands the game and you can combine and link up with, it does help. Also as a centre-forward, when you are playing against a back three or back two, when it's one it's easier for them to occupy, but when there's someone else there's more space, you can drift out of the game and go into different areas. I actually enjoy playing in a two and I can play with him obviously. When I have done, it's been OK."
For Arteta to switch to a formation that accommodates Nketiah and Lacazette in the same side centrally would be a surprise given he has largely stuck with one centre-forward regardless of the system ever since his appointment as Arsenal head coach - and then later manager - in the winter of 2019.
Although earlier in the season there was a throwback to the 4-4-2 formation - used regularly during Arsene Wenger's early years - for Arsenal's 3-1 win over Aston Villa and the Spaniard stuck with it for a few games and in Gabriel Martinelli, Smith Rowe and Nicolas Pepe, there is certainly enough options to use two strikers in attack and give the opposition something to think about for the remainder of the campaign.
Whether Arteta opts to go down that route remains to be seen, but he did say in his pre-match press conference that Nketiah is the one player in his squad that deserves more chances amid the striker's frustration over a lack of chances in the Premier League this season.
