Arsenal news: Costa photographed on The Holloway Road

That’s right, that is a photo of a Costa shop. Costa Coffee on Holloway Road, a few minutes walk from The Emirates Stadium. That is about as close as Arsenal are going to get to a Costa this season and for the better I say.

Costa Coffee on Holloway Road

Every season Arsenal seem to have an injury “crisis” in a crucial position and this season, despite pushing on to top the league with a number of missing players, we head towards the second half of the season with a depleted forward line.

Olivier Giroud has been worked to the bone so far this season, Nicklas Bendtner is out for at least a month just as he was showing the sort of form and incisive contribution that his champions declared he was capable of as a viable alternative to Giroud and Podolski has shown that he is vastly more useful to Arsenal on the left of the front three rather than as a lone front-man. Add to that, Arsenal have just lost their top scorer from last season and probably our most potent goal-threat in Theo Walcott, to an ACL injury for 6 months.

Considering all of this it is no small wonder that the fans want to see an additional striker brought in to Arsenal this January. Buying for buying’s sake isn’t going to work as Arsenal put a lot of effort into moving on “dead wood” (horrible term) last summer and won’t want to bring in someone who will be obsolete in a few months.

As we are often told by Wenger and many other Premier League Managers that buying top quality in January is almost impossible. The only potentially available striker that Arsenal could realistically get in January that falls into the “quality” bracket is Diego Costa of Atletico Madrid.

Costa has a release clause of around £32m which has deceived a few people into believing he is world-class. Others have watched him a few times this season and believe he is world-class. So for that sort of money, we should definitely go for him right?

Not for me. I’m not going to act like I watch every Atletico match or indeed every La Liga match but I have seen a fair few Atletico matches over the past few years as they are on Sky a lot and to be honest with you, I don’t enjoy watching Barcelona so tend to watch both Madrid clubs when they are on.

Diego Costa is a very good player but I have my reservations based on history, cost and transfer window.

Gunner Costa Too Much? (I apologise for that)

Before last season he had never hit double figures and had spent most of his career waiting behind the likes of Forlan, Aguero and Falcao for his chance to shine. With all of those players leaving he has taken centre stage and seems to be excelling but is it just a flash in the pan? Probably not but only will tell and £32m is a lot of money to risk on someone who has only just started to reach a modicum of world-class status.

He would also be cup-tied for the Champions League which would mean his only value to Arsenal would be the FA Cup and the Premier League. Whilst Arsenal are chasing a title can they really afford to bed in a new forward with no experience of the league who has only just started to score regularly in a league he is much more accustomed to which plays at a slower pace?

Cisse is still banging in the goals for Newcastle right?

£32m might buy a much better player, or a player more adaptable to our style and our league, in the summer. I’d like to see another player brought into Arsenal this month but I’d rather we were conservative with our cash or brought in a loan so we can get an Özil-esque signing in the summer who will have more time to bed into the team.

In Gnabry and the soon to return Oxlade-Chamberlain we have cover for Theo and pacey options on the right. Sanogo and Bendtner should be fit soon and if the shit really hit the fan and we had no-one left to play up top we always have Park.

I’m not going to say that Park is shit or he is a non-option because I’ve seen him play less that 250 minutes of football for Arsenal but I will say there is a reason Wenger doesn’t play him. That said, if, like Bendtner, he convinced the boss with his attitude in training that he could play a part, however small, I would have no issues with him because I trust the manager.

Ideally though we won’t have to contemplate such a scenario this season.

Hopefully Wenger gets the loan signing he wants or a cheaper permanent addition than Costa and he can turn his financial focus to a “big name” in the summer. And if you’re taking requests Mr Wenger, another centre-back this January for peace of mind wouldn’t go amiss.