Arsenal’s history is filled with legendary forwards but the current crop are devoid of any quality strikers.

What Mikel Arteta would give for a Robin van Persie or a Thierry Henry right now after watching injuries decimate his forward line. Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus were Arsenal’s only recognisable No 9s and they’re both out for the season.

It puts a real dent in Arsenal’s hopes of catching Liverpool in the title race, with the Gunners forced to deploy both Leandro Trossard and Mikel Merino up front at times during their 2-0 win at Leicester on Saturday.

To make matters worse, there are a handful of young forwards who were on Arsenal’s books who are now continuing to impress elsewhere – an agonising thought for Arteta given that he could used this tough moment to develop their talents.

With that in mind, Mirror Football has taken a look back at some of the forwards Arsenal let go too early who are now flourishing at other clubs.

This one will sting for Arsenal fans after watching Manchester United prize one of their biggest talents from the academy.

Obi-Martin joined Arsenal aged 14 after starting his career in his native Denmark and became a prolific goalscorer in the youth ranks, scoring 32 times in 18 appearances for the club’s Under-18s in the 2023-24 season – including scoring seven times in a 9-0 win over Norwich. He also went viral for scoring 10 goals in a game for the Under-16s.

He followed that up with 12 goals in 13 matches this season and earned the respect of Arteta, who called him up for training with the first team before Manchester United came calling in September.

Obi-Martin didn’t take long to make an impression for the United youth team, scoring a hat-trick on his first start for the Under-18s against Nottingham Forest.

Now 17, he would have been the perfect player to step up and deliver for Arsenal amid their injury crisis, joining forwards like Ethan Nwaneri to be bedded into the first team.

United are instead benefiting and have already handed him his first appearance after Ruben Amorim brought him on in the 1-0 loss to Tottenham on Sunday.

Another Danish youth star, Biereth joined the club aged 18 from Fulham, having netted 22 times in 27 games for the Whites’ Under-18s side.

Biereth said at the time it was a “once in a life time opportunity” that he “couldn’t turn down”.

His performances for the club’s Under-23s were impressive and consistent. He netted 11 times in 21 games in Premier League 2 and even earned a few appearances on Mikel Arteta’s first team bench – but was never called upon.

In the next two seasons, Biereth was loaned out to RKC Waalwijk in the Eredivisie, Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership and Sturm Graz in the Austrian Bundesliga, but he didn’t yield more than a handful of goals in each spell.

Eventually Arsenal opted to cash in on the youngster at the beginning of this season as Sturm Graz decided to make the loan permanent – and he has delivered by netting 11 times in just 16 appearances.

That form was enough to convince Monaco he was their man and they spent around £12m bringing him to Ligue 1. He’s made an immediate impression, scoring seven times in his first five games – including two hat-tricks against Auxerre and Nantes. It’s fair to say this one will sting for Arsenal fans.

Balogun is now a Monaco team-mate of Biereth’s – who actually replaced the forward after suffering a dislocated shoulder in October.

He is a long-term absentee for Monaco and could be out until at least April, so they will be grateful Biereth is banging in the goals.

Balogun joined Arsenal’s academy at the age of eight and was tipped for big things as he ended up playing 10 times for the first team in total.

A loan spell to Middlesbrough came in 2021-22, where he only managed to fire in three goals, before he really made a name for himself at Ligue 1 side Reims.

There he blitzed 21 times in 37 league appearances, turning heads across a number of top European sides in the process.

His superb displays up front allowed Arsenal to drive a hard bargain for their academy talent as they eventually negotiated a £25.7million deal with Monaco at the start of last season.

He went on to score eight goals in 32 appearances and had scored three times this season before picking up his injury.

Some Arsenal fans will question how Aston Villa were able to make two forward signings this month while they made zero – and one of those was a former Gunners youth star.

Malen joined Arsenal in 2015 from the famed Ajax youth system and scored four times in 11 appearances in Premier League 2.

He then followed that up with another 12 goals the following season but it became clear he wasn’t going to fit into Arsenal’s plans under then-boss Arsene Wenger and he never played a senior game for the first team.

Eventually he joined the PSV academy in 2017 and later became a huge hit for the first team. In four seasons, he scored 55 times from 116 outings before gaining attention from Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund.

He wasn’t as prolific in Germany as he scored just nine times in his first season, before slightly improving to score 10 times in 2022-23 and 15 last season. Were it not for a succession of niggling injury problems over the years, he could have been more successful for Dortmund, who sold him to Villa in January.

Malen has played four times for Unai Emery without a goal so far, but will not come up against his old side as Arsenal have already played Villa twice.

Akpom is another long-serving member of Arsenal’s academy who joined the Gunners at the age of six, gaining attention with a string of goals for the youth sides, but had to be patient for first-team opportunities.

He had to wait until 2013 for his senior debut after coming on in injury time in a 3-1 win over Sunderland and Akpom would play a further seven times the following season before being sent on a string of loans to Brentford, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Hull City, Brighton and Sint-Truiden in Belgium.

Akpom only scored 13 times across all those loan spells and failed to score in four of them – hinting that his potential may never be fully realised before he agreed a permanent exit to PAOK in 2018.

He would score 18 goals in 79 appearances in the Greece Super League before moving back to England with Middlesbrough in 2020. After two slow seasons where he only scored five goals, he suddenly came alive in the 2022-23 campaign as he blitzed 28 goals in the Championship.

His flurry of strikes earned him a £10m move to Ajax in 2023, where he scored 11 times in his first season and seven times this season. With first team opportunities limited, he joined Lille on loan and has already made an impression by netting twice in his first three games in Ligue 1.

This is a controversial one given that Kane is now a club legend for Arsenal’s bitter rivals Tottenham, but supporters never let their arch enemies forget where it all started for the England captain.

Arsenal might wonder how different things might have been had they kept Kane on their books after he joined as an eight-year-old, but he was released after failing to impress academy boss at the time Liam Brady.

Tottenham took a chance on him aged 11 after watching him impress in a trial for Watford and the rest is history. He is Spurs’ all-time highest goalscorer with 280 strikes in 435 appearances, picking up three golden boot awards in the process.

Kane has since joined Bayern Munich, arriving for around £100m in 2023, and has since netted an incredible 73 times in 75 games for the Bundesliga giants.

There has been talk that Arsenal could be interested in making a shock move for Kane next season given that he reportedly has a release clause of £60m, with Paul Merson suggesting Mikel Arteta should make a bold move that would send shockwaves across north London.

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