The forward has earned a France call-up on the back of his impressive goalscoring form in La Liga this season and the Gunners boss admits that the 22-year-old is a transfer target

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Arsenal are monitoring Real Sociedad forward Antoine Griezmann.

The 22-year-old has been in impressive form so far this season, scoring 19 goals across all competitions to help his side into sixth place in La Liga.

Arsenal remain in the market for a striker to reduce some of the goalscoring burden on Olivier Giroud, having failed with January moves for Alvaro Morata and Miroslav Klose.

Speaking to Telefoot TF1, Wenger admitted that the French winger is of interest to the Gunners, stating that they had been “following Antoine Griezmann for a long time”.

Griezmann is currently La Liga’s third-highest scorer behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Diego Costa and his exceptional form has earned a first call-up to the France side for their friendly with Netherlands.

Arsenal, meanwhile, could not find the target on Saturday as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Stoke, leaving them four points behind leaders Chelsea, with Wenger left to bemoan his side’s inability to cope with the Potters.

“You have to give credit to Stoke, they defended well with resilience and they made the game very physical,” he told reporters.

“We knew before the game, they have the highest number of fouls in the Premier League but we didn’t cope well enough with it.

“Honestly I don’t want to talk about the referee. I have nothing to say about [fouls on Giroud], I’m long enough in the game to make my own judgement and I prefer to concentrate on our performance.”