What seems to have been the longest drawn out transfer window of all time slammed shut last night. With the new rules regarding loan deals, there will be no more players out, no more players in, until January.

With a shock dead line day move for Jack Wilshere, and lack of any madness, there is a debate as to whether our squad is still short in midfield and upfront, or if the balance is perfect and the loan of Jack Wilshere is a good thing for his future.

Here is a couple of things I have put together:

2016/17 First Team Squad

Petr Cech
David Ospina
Damian Martínez
Hector Bellerin
Mathieu Debuchy
Carl Jenkinson
Laurent Koscielny
Shkodran Mustafi
Per Mertesacker
Gabriel
Rob Holding
Nacho Monreal
Kieran Gibbs
Granit Xhaka
Mohamed Elneny
Francis Coquelin
Aaron Ramsey
Santi Cazorla
Mesut Ozil
Alexis Sanchez
Theo Walcott
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Alex Iwobi
Jeff Reine-Adélaïde
Olivier Giroud
Lucas Perez
Danny Welbeck
Yaya Sanogo
Chuba Akpom

2016/17 First Team Squad

Foreign

Petr Cech
David Ospina
Damian Martínez
Mathieu Debuchy
Laurent Koscielny
Shkodran Mustafi
Per Mertesacker
Gabriel
Nacho Monreal
Granit Xhaka
Mohamed Elneny
Santi Cazorla
Mesut Ozil
Alexis Sanchez
Olivier Giroud
Lucas Perez
Yaya Sanogo

17 Foreign players

Home Grown

Carl Jenkinson
Kieran Gibbs
Francis Coquelin
Aaron Ramsey
Theo Walcott
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Danny Welbeck

7 Home grown players

Youth

Hector Bellerin
Rob Holding
Alex Iwobi
Jeff Reine-Adélaïde
Chuba Akpom

Premier League rules dictate that you may only have a 25 man squad and a maximum of 17 non-home grown players. You players under the age of 21 are excluded.

Arsenal are pretty much on the brink of a full squad. 17 non-home grown players, 7 home grown players. This means we have 1 slot available, for a home grown player. Had Jack Wilshere have stayed, the squad would have been full.

Of course, there could have been some flexibility.

Not declaring Yaya Sanogo would have freed up a foreign spot. Danny Welbeck is out until January, we could have left him off the list if we needed to free up a spot in an emergency if we bought someone in.

Then we have the right backs Mathieu Debuchy and Carl Jenkinson. Both are currently injured. We could have hedge our bets and only declared one (Debuchy is closer to fitness, but takes up a non-home grown spot) freeing up another spot.

So with Wilshere out, it left us with 1 free spot for a home grown player. Realistically we could have increased this to 3.

Squad by position

Goalkeepers: Cech / Ospina / Martinez

Right Backs: Bellerin / Debuchy / Jenkinson / Mustafi

Centre Backs: Mustafi / Koscielny / Mertesacker / Gabriel / Holding / Monreal / Debuchy

Left Backs: Monreal / Gibbs

Defensive Midfielders: Xhaka / Elneny / Coquelin / Ramsey

Central Midfielders: Ramsey / Cazorla / Xhaka / Elneny

Attacking Midfielders: Ozil / Cazorla / Ramsey / Iwobi / Oxlade-Chamberlain / Reine-Adélaïde

Wingers: Sanchez / Walcott / Perez / Welbeck / Oxlade-Chamberlain / Iwobi / Ramsey / Cazorla / Ozil / Reine-Adélaïde

Strikers: Giroud / Perez / Welbeck / Sanchez / Walcott / Akpom / Sanogo

Crucially we have at least 2 specialist players in every position. Then with the versatility of other players, we have plenty of strength in depth. For example I can easily see us playing a central midfield of Xhaka Elneny Ramsey. 131 international caps between them – 44, 43 & 44 respectively and funnily.

Ins and Outs

Outs

Mikel Arteta
Mathieu Flamini
Tomas Rosicky
Serge Gnabry
Joel Campbell
Calum Chambers
Jack Wilshere

Ins

Granit Xhaka
Rob Holding
Lucas Perez
Shkodran Mustafi

On the face of it, we have lost 7 members of last years senior squad, and gained just 4. On the face of it, we are short. But the reality is different.

Since last summer, we have also added Mohamed Elneny and seen the development of Alex Iwobi. That leaves are outs and replacements as follows:

Mikel Arteta = Not replaced
Mathieu Flamini = Mohamed Elneny
Tomas Rosicky = Not replaced
Serge Gnabry = Not replaced
Joel Campbell = Lucas Perez
Calum Chambers = Rob Holding
Jack Wilshere = Granit Xhaka

So 4 players have been replaced, 3 not.

On the 4 replaced, Elneny, Holding and Xhaka are all better than those they have replaced (Flamini, Chambers, Wilshere). Elneny had already replaced Flamini last season – the Frenchman only starting 4 Premier League games after the Egyptian’s arrival.

Tomas Rosicky did not play a single minute. He did not need replacing. With Alex Iwobi’s development, it could be argued that he has taken Rosicky’s squad place, offering very similar attributes. Serge Gnabry also spent the season on loan, so also did not need to be replaced.

As for Mikel Arteta, he played just 162 Premier League minutes, so the reality is he also did not need replacing.

We started last season with defensive midfield options of:

Coquelin, Flamini, Arteta

This season it is:

Xhaka, Elneny, Coquelin

The fact that last seasons 1^st choice is this seasons 3^rd choice shows the advancements we have made in that position of the last 6 months.

The last replacement is Joel Campbell out on loan to be replaced by Lucas Perez. Time will tell whether this is a move forward. But based on both of their performance in La Liga – Perez 24 goals in 58 games; Campbell 1 in 20.

Then we have Mustafi. He is a big step forward.

 

It still feels we are short. I still would have liked a time right winger. A superstar. A Griezmann. A Draxler. An Isco.

This transfer window has been tough for Arsenal fans, but we go into 2016/17 (minus 3 games) in a stronger position than we did last season.

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC