The stunning £40m Premier League striker raid West Ham must make this January

Oh, how the other half live! Today's transfer line, dear reader, is a tale of haves and have-nots from the Big Smoke, Dickensian in hue, frustrating in its bleeding simplicity.

You see, Arsenal want a striker. Or rather, they want a better striker because Mikel Arteta, reportedly, does not believe that the combined goalscoring capabilities of self-confessed blunt edge Gabriel Jesus and breezy understudy Eddie Nketiah are quite enough to propel his side to a Premier League title. As such, the Gunners could look to sign another centre-forward, and would like to do so sooner rather than later.

The most obvious problem they face in this endeavour is a pesky little gremlin by the name of Financial Fair Play. Arsenal spent big in the summer, and if they are to be similarly extravagant this winter, then they will likely need to sell before they can buy. Through a convoluted process of recency bias and the saving of face, the Gunners - according to Football Transfers, at least - have opened themselves up to the prospect of selling Nketiah in January. Benjamin Sesko, Dusan Vlahovic, and Ivan Toney are said to be on a working shortlist of potential replacements.

And that brings us to West Ham, very much the Cratchit Family of our piece. By comparison, the Hammers are in desperate need of a striker, any striker, at the present moment in time. Neither Michail Antonio, who has scored just twice in 12 Premier League appearances this season, or Danny Ings, who has zero in nine, feel like particularly sustainable solutions for David Moyes' side, and it is no great shock to read various reports suggesting that they will look to parachute in a new hitman in the coming weeks. Nketiah, you suspect, would be as good an option for them as anybody.

The Arsenal striker, although often relegated to the role of deputy, evidently knows where the back of the net is. With five in 14 top flight outings this term, it would be disingenuous to suggest that he is scintillating, but if nothing else, he is steady, and at the age of 24, he has the feeling of a player who is finally ready to prove himself as somebody's main man.

As recently as June, Nketiah was supposedly valued at around £40 million by the Gunners, and while that price would represent a significant investment for West Ham, it's not extortionate to the point of untenable. After all, Gianluca Scamacca, their last grand striking purchase cost upwards of £30 million. Unfortunately, this is just the nature of the market.

And that's assuming Arsenal hold out for their full asking price. Given their eagerness to bring in fresh blood, they may be convinced to offload Nketiah for a reduced fee, and the prospect of signing a talent of his ilk - a proven Premier League goalscorer from a title contender - on the relative cheap might be too good of an opportunity for the Hammers to snub.

They say one man's trash is another man's treasure, and to that end, Nketiah could be exactly the kind of convenient hand-me-down that West Ham have been crying out for.