‘We need goals’: Gabriel Jesus challenged by Mikel Arteta to end Arsenal drought

The Gunners were soundly beaten midweek by PSV and have scored just four goals in five games

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal will struggle to win games unless their strikers start scoring again.

Neither Gabriel Jesus nor Eddie Nketiah has found the net in Arsenal’s last six matches, while Arteta’s team have only scored four times in the last five, culminating in Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to PSV Eindhoven.

Jesus was prolific at the start of his Gunners career but has now gone 426 minutes without a goal while Nketiah is yet to score in the Premier League this season, having come off the bench in every game.

And Arteta said: “We need goals and we need goals from our front players, that’s for sure, to win games and to give us bigger margins. Obviously that run of lack of goals has to end for us to be in a position to win more matches.”

Arsenal host Nottingham Forest on Sunday with Arteta hoping his strikers can end their goal droughts and saying centre-forwards need to be able to cope psychologically with barren spells.

He added: “Sometimes there are a lot of mental things you can work on and discuss. And experiences they have had – it’s not the first time Eddie or Gabi have been five games without scoring in their career, that happens to any striker that I’ve known of. And you have to deal with it, it’s part of their job.”

Arteta is looking for a response after Arsenal lost for the first time in 10 games on Thursday, saying: “The best way after a defeat is to win the next game. That’s 100 percent for sure. We have a great opportunity on Sunday, in front of our crowd. We have been incredibly good at home and we have to see a different side.”