Mikel Arteta still wants to strengthen his left wing options – but must sell before he can do more transfer business. That leaves Arsenal facing the prospect of not making any more big money moves in this window unless they start to ship players out.
The Gunners have already been linked with Real Madrid superstar Rodrygo while Arteta is a huge fan of Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze but both will not move to the Emirates unless there is a big last minute shift. Tottenham are now in pole position to land Eze with negotiations ongoing as they look to seal a £60m deal – £55m plus £5m in add-ons – but Palace are determined to stand firm and drive a good deal.
That is currently out of Arsenal’s reach because they have a bloated squad with all their new £200m-plus worth of arrivals but they have so far struggled to get players out of the door with the spotlight on sporting director Andrea Berta to balance the books. Leandro Trossard is most likely to go at this stage as Brentford, Aston Villa and several foreign clubs have shown interest in the versatile forward who is now further down the pecking order. First team squad members Jakub Kiwior, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Reiss Nelson did not even make the bench at Manchester United on Sunday.
Teenager Max Dowman, 15, was at the game but was left out of the match day squad while Christian Norgaard had a small knock and Gabriel Jesus is recovering from a long term knee injury.
Fenerbahce have shown an interest in Zinchenko who only has a year left on his contract while Porto and Stuttgart are interested in Vieira with the Gunners keen to do a permanent deal. Lokonga has also attracted interest while Kiwior is considering his options after falling down the pecking order despite an impressive finish to last season.
Arsenal signed Noni Madueke from Chelsea for £52m but Gabriel Martinelli started the season at Old Trafford and there is a feeling that they would still like to bring in extra quality. But the interest in Eze did not progress because that would also block off the pathway for Ethan Nwaneri and Dowman getting first team opportunities.
They must offload to do more deals in this window but if another move is to be done then a left winger would be the most likely.
