No new midfielder

Two months ago everyone was clambering for a new defensive midfielder.

Martin Zubimendi had gone off the boil and Christian Norgaard was not trusted. With Declan Rice being utilised further forward, it looked highly likely that we might go big for someone like Sandro Tonali.

Firstly, I never really understood the criticism of Zubimendi.

The Spaniard had an excellent two thirds to the season before running out of steam. That should not be a surprise considering he played almost every Premier League minute up to the first 34 games of the season. Considering how much harder, more physically and mentally, the Premier League is than La Liga, it is only natural he ran out of steam.

Next season Zubimendi will not be a Premier League virgin. He would have grown from this season and be ready to return to his high end performances. But we still need an option to rotate in for him.

For whatever reason, Mikel Arteta did not fancy Norgaard, despite his vast Premier League experience. That does leave the door open to us signing someone like Tonali, although I just can not see us spending £80m+ on what is basically going to be a back up player.

Instead of signing someone, I expect Arteta to continue what we saw at the back end of the season – playing Myles Lewis Skelly in midfield.

The young Englishman did not look out of place in his handful of games as our deepest midfielder. He look cool and calm on the ball, broke up play nicely, and is press resistant with his ability to turn on a six-pence.

He has recently spoken about how, since December, he has been training full time as a midfielder. Having not been selected for England for the World Cup, MLS will be able to continue his development over the summer and in friendlies. I fully expect Lewis Skelly to start our first game of the 2026/27 season as our defensive midfielder.

One in, one out on the left

I see a lot of people online making a case for us to sell both Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, to be replaced by two new left wingers. We will not see this kind of turnover.

What will happen is either Martinelli will leave to be replaced by another speedster, such as Bradley Barcola, or Trossard will depart to be replaced with a left winger comfortable coming into those more central pockets.

My feeling right now is Martinelli stays for at least one more season, and we saw Trossard exit – the Belgium also has a potentially expensive divorce coming up so moving to Saudi for big bucks may suit him.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is top of many Arsenal fans lists as the man they want to see us sign this season, but I just can not see it happen. Why would he leave somewhere that he has only been for 18-months, is paid nearly £400k a week, and has guaranteed trophies?

The more realistic target is Morgan Rodgers who has been excellent for Aston Villa in the last 18-months.

He has the tight control, one on one skills and ability to come in off that left wing with excellent long shooting. Rodgers is also a creator as well as a goal scorer. £80m might feel expensive, but he is still only 23-years-old so I feel it would be a worthwhile acquisition.

That would give us Rodgers and Martinelli on the left. A nice little duo.

I also expect us to sign Jeremy Monga from Leicester City. Still only 16, he looks an absolute beast of a winger already and combines amazingly quick feet with decision making that is far beyond his young age. Get him in and in 2-years we will probably look to cash in on Martinelli and have Monga pushing Rodgers for a starting spot.

Havertz to make way?

Arsenal are being heavily linked with Julian Alverez. There is also plenty of talk about Junior Kroupi. The issue is we already have 3 strikers.

I think we all agree that Gabriel Jesus is off this summer, but for me that does not free up a slot for a new signing – we still have Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz, and we simply do not need a 3rd options:

Gyokeres – 3,427 total minutes
Jesus – 988
Havertz – 976

With us playing one up top, there would not be enough minutes to go around to accommodate Gyokeres, Havertz and one more. And I also do not really see Havertz as a deeper option anymore now that we Eberechi Eze to provide cover and competition for Martin Odegaard.

Add in that Havertz is one of our highest paid players, it would make little sense to have him as 3rd choice striker, 3rd choice number 10, whilst also paying a Julian Alvarez a huge salary.

The only way either Alvarez or Kroupi comes in is if Havertz leaves. And I would not put it against the German departing.

We know Arteta values availability, and Havertz bumped from injury to injury last season. With over 450 games for club and country at just 26, the body is clearly now straining to keep up with the physicality of Premier League football.

Recent links to Real Madrid have surfaced and this is a transfer that really could happen. And with a book value of just £26m, Arsenal would not need to price him out of a move to make a profit. I think anything in the region of £40 may see him go/ And that then opens the door to Kroupi or Alvarez. And my favoured option would be the Bournemouth striker.

Arsenal will learn from Liverpool

After winning the league in 2024/25, Liverpool spent £420million – around £175m more than Arsenal and £140m more than the 2nd highest spending team (Chelsea). They went big huge on the likes of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, both of whom were big money flops.

£120m was spent on Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Giorgi Mamardashvili and Giovanni Leoni. They played a combined 4,169 Premier League minutes, with Kerkez playing over half of that. To bring that into comparison, Zubimendi played 3,002 PL minutes on his own.

Hugo Etikite is their only new signing that you could consider a success, and he has only scored 3 Premier League goals since Christmas and is now out until 2027.

When you are champions, you make tweaks, not wholesale changes.

The option to buy Piero Hincapie will become permanent, and we will add the left winger and right back (to replace Ben White). Other than that, I do not see too many big transfer unless we see Kai Havertz leave. If the German stays, we will still expect to see over £150m spent on Hincapie, a left winger and right back. Maybe even close to £200m. And the lower volume of players coming in will ensure we hit the ground running again and do not need to tweak a winning formula to shoehorn in a big load of new signings.

And the rest?

I think we all know that Gabriel Jesus, Ben White, Fabio Vieira and Reiss Nelson will depart this summer. They will join Jakub Kiwior and Reiss Nelson, whose loan deals have already been made permeant.

Ethan Nwaneri is an interesting one. I still struggle to see how he gets game time ahead of Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke (on the left wing) and Odegaard and Eze inside of them. Throw in Max Dowman and I think we might see the Englishman depart to somewhere like Dortmund if an offer north of £40m comes in (with a buy back clause and sell on clause potentially lowering that price).

Kepa will not be going. What keeper is better than him who would be happy being 2nd choice? Other than that, I do not think we should expect too much speculation about anyone else and we can bask in our success this summer.

Now the only question is whether it will be one or two trophies…

Keenos