In June I analysed the state of the Arsenal squad.

The theory behind it was to evaluate what exactly Arsenal currently has in the squad, in terms of players that must be registered with the Premier League (Players born on or after 1 January 1998 do not need to be register) and of those registered players, who is home grown (HG) and non-home grown (NHG).

At the time of previous blog, Arsenal had 22 players over the age of 21, 15 of whom had to be registered. This left Arsenal with 3 senior spots, 2 of which could be filled by a NHG player if desired.

Since that blog, Arsenal have signed Dani Ceballos, Gabriel Martinelli and William Saliba, with Nicolas Pepe on the cusp of joining (at the time of writing). David Ospina has been sold.

This leaves Arsenal’s squad looking at follows:

The signings of Dani Ceballos and Nicolas Pepe, with David Ospina leaving puts Arsenal in a position where they can sign 2 more senior players – enough room for a central defender and left back.

This leaves Arsenal with just 1 space for a non home grown player.

Scottish players are considered NHG under Premier League rules. This means that were Arsenal to sign Kieran Tierney at left back, they would have reached the maximum amount of NHG players.

Things can change quickly in football, however.

Laurent Koscielny is likely to return to France, with Edu having recently met with his counterpart at Rennes.

If a new central defender joins, it will most likely mean the end for Shkodran Mustafi. Either Saed Kolasinac or Nacho Monreal will surely make way for Tierney.

Losing Koscielny, Mustafi and a left back will free up 3 more NHG places, taking us down to just 14 – and 21 registered players in total.

That would leave us the places to add someone like Samuel Umtiti or Daniele Rugani – both of whom we have been linked with. It would also give us a bit of breathing room if we wanted to make a late bid for another central midfielder like Sami Khedira.

With the likes of Mohammed Elneny and Henrikh Mkhitaryan set to be on the fringes of the squad, Arsenal could free up further space if needed.

We are closing in on the maximum registered squad number (25) and maximum amount of non home grown players (17), but there is nothing to worry about. Yet.

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC