5 best Arsenal strikers of all time

We here at Arsenal-Mania are in a particularly reflective mood this Sunday evening. With all this speculation linking Arsenal with a move for another big name striker, we thought it would be fun to remember some of the great goalscorers in club history. These men have etched themselves into Arsenal folklore, and we can only hope our current attacking corps as well as any new man that enters can one day emulate the accomplishments of these heroes.

Have a look at five of Arsenal’s best ever strikers.

Thierry Henry

Of course no list of Arsenal greats would be complete without the club’s best ever player. Arsenal reigning king of goals was always going to get a place in this list, and the video above merely scratches the surface in regards to the goals he scored for his club. He scored 228 of them, so we figured 10 would be a suitable number to show otherwise we would be here all day! The rest of this list is in no specific order, but Henry is top of the pile for obvious reasons.

Dennis Bergkamp

I could watch this goal all day long, and there was plenty more where that came from. Bergkamp is one of the most technically gifted players the world has ever seen, let alone Arsenal’s greatest forwards. I could share with a you a myriad of his goals as well, but I think this one sums up what he was all about; style and grace and making difficult skills look ridiculously simple.

Ian Wright

Legends do legendary things, and this goal was number 179 for Ian Wright to overtake Cliff Bastin as Arsenal all team leading goal scorer at the time. It was the simplest of finishes, but nothing less than he deserves after all of his contributions to the side. He would go on to score six more to bring his total to 185, holding the record for most goals ever until Henry broke it years later.

Cliff Bastin

Not too much footage exists from the early 1930’s and late 1940’s so bear with me. Bastin was Arsenal’s talisman during the First Division era, lifting five titles during his spell at the club. He was the club’s record holder for years as well as I mentioned previously with 178 total goals scored in just 395 games for the club. He is one of Arsenal youngest ever league winners as well, winning his first at the age of just 19. By that time he already had an FA Cup win and an England cap, making him the youngest to ever complete that feat. He was signed as a 17 year old in 1928, and by 1936 he had won the league and astonishing five times. His career was cut short four years later by military duty during the outbreak of World War Two aged just 27. He would have been at the peak of his powers and the official Arsenal website attests that he may have extended his goal total to a tally that “even Henry and Wright might have struggled to match.”

Charlie George

The only man on this list who has not reached 100 goals for the club, but still managed to crack the top 10 list of all time Arsenal players. That is because he only has 179 appearances, but still managed to bang in 49 goals. George is the man who delivered Arsenal’s first ever league and cup double by scoring the winner against Liverpool in the 1971 FA Cup final. The goals is above, and George’s write up on Arsenal.com brilliantly recalls the moment: