After three years as the Premier League’s nearly men, it seems Arsenal can wait no longer. On Saturday, their preseason begins in earnest as they fly out to Singapore, Mikel Arteta’s squad due to be swelled by anywhere up to six new additions. That might not be the end of it either. This is the summer that Arsenal have gone all in.
Prior to the start of preseason, three players were through the door, Kepa Arrizabalaga, a Premier League number one last season with Bournemouth, who will now be backing up David Raya while Martin Zubimendi and Christian Norgaard represent a total overhaul of the defensive midfield slot, previously filled by Jorginho and Thomas Partey.
Two more deals only require announcing, Cristhian Mosquera coming in to deepen options in defense for $18.6 million and Noni Madueke, a $70 million arrival from Chelsea. The latter is expected to miss the preseason tour after his involvement in the Club World Cup. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated of all the signings was agreed in principle with Sporting last week, and though at the time of writing a final agreement has not been reached, Arsenal are expected to pay an initial $73.6 million for Viktor Gyokeres with remaining negotiations focused on the exact makeup and achievability of $11.6 million of add-ons.
The sextet having been secured, Arsenal’s immediate focus is on balancing the books. Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Oleksandr Zinchenko are available, as is Reiss Nelson. According to CBS Sports sources, he is wanted by Fulham on loan, but both Arsenal and the player favor a permanent departure. Leandro Trossard has also drawn interest from Turkey. The likes of Jakub Kiwior and Gabriel Martinelli are understood to not be players who the Gunners are actively pursuing sales for but for whom sizeable offers would be considered.
Get some of those sales right and there would be the opportunity for one more addition at the Emirates Stadium, a sprinkling of stardust in the final third. CBS Sports revealed last month that both Arsenal and Saudi Arabian side Neom SC are targeting Rodrygo while talks have been held between the Gunners and representatives for Crystal Palace playmaker Eberechi Eze. Meanwhile, the club have been progressing through the stack of renegotiations required, Gabriel, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
The end result of a quite remarkable level of activity for a team that are clearly capable of challenging for the Premier League title at full strength? A squad where, even without that seventh senior addition, there could be at least two options in each position that Arteta trusts. Last season, Arsenal’s squad players were unable to shoulder the load when Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz went down for extended periods. Losing their three most important attackers would be curtains for any Premier League title contender, but this season the north Londoners are at least doing all they can to deepen their squad, allowing Arteta to act before the load gets too heavy on Saka and others.
Berta’s impact
The face of this squad overhaul is new sporting director Andrea Berta. It is a gross oversimplification to credit any club’s success or failure in the transfer market to one individual, Arsenal’s recruitment success over the last half decade was built on an impressive cocktail of data-led scouting, Edu’s ruthless approach to trimming back his squad and the charisma of Arteta. Combine that with a management team above them that shared in the vision, and it proved to be an extremely effective machine, only spluttering in the summer of 2024 when money was tighter and the departure of chief executive Vinai Venkatesham prompted Edu’s eyes to wonder elsewhere.
His replacement, Berta, formerly of Atletico Madrid, looks to have made a bright start. On his appointment, much was made of the Italian’s voracious appetite for information, which has certainly proven to be the case. Berta has kept a tight inner circle in his first window at the Emirates Stadium, and while it is impossible for a club of Arsenal’s size to keep their business entirely out of the public eye, they have done a good job of keeping the market guessing. Prior to their decisive move for Gyokeres, there were few external voices who had a clear sense of whether it would be the Swede or Benjamin Sesko that Arsenal zeroed in on.
When they did move, they did so decisively. The deal for Gyokeres might not be finalized at the time of writing, but all that remains is negotiations around the fringes of a deal that Arsenal quickly established for not much more than the much-debated gentleman’s agreement of $79 million that Sporting insisted did not exist.
Arsenal’s proactivity is also reflected in the acquisition of Norgaard. CBS Sports understands that Tottenham were mulling a move that would have reunited the Dane with his former Brentford boss Thomas Frank but ultimately the Gunners moved so quickly in late June that they effectively locked out any potential suitors. Scenes of Norgaard’s jubilation on his way to finalising his move speak to the aura that has swiftly developed at this club under Arteta.
When Arsenal have wanted a player, they haven’t waited long in getting him. Occasionally, that can prompt questions. Given they knew that personal terms could be swiftly finalised with Madueke, who sources say was focused only on the Gunners when their interest came to light, might there have been the opportunity to hold Chelsea’s feet to the fire and push for a better price when the Blues have so many forwards they need to clear out?
Perhaps, but according to CBS Sports sources, Arsenal believe that they have gotten Madueke for a good price. As CBS Sports detailed previously, the 23-year-old England international took significant strides forward in terms of ball progression and shot getting last season, progress which did not escape the attention of Arsenal’s recruitment department. Skeptical supporters see $70 million being dropped on a backup for Saka, sources close to the club view Madueke as a player who will get plenty of minutes both as a left-footed option off the left — a valuable counterbalance to Martinelli in that regard — as well as in his more natural right-sided spot.
Other arrivals have a more clear look of depth pieces. Mosquera fills a depth chart hole on the right side of defense and, at the very least, could ensure that William Saliba doesn’t have to start next season’s equivalent of Preston away in the fourth round of the EFL Cup. Valencia had hoped to convince the 21-year-old to stay at the Mestalla for one more year, offering to improve his salary at a club where he could be expected to start week in, week out. He could not be persuaded and only wanted Arsenal, a scenario that allowed them to secure Mosquera’s services at some way below the $23 million mark that Valencia had initially set.
Sources who know Mosquera from his time in La Liga speak glowingly of a player with great potential and, as one insider puts it, a “outstanding athletic profile.”
He is “a million percent” focused on and off the field, with room to develop into a high-quality center back. Given Arsenal’s impressive record for defensive recruitment in the last four years, it is fair to have high hopes.
Title aspirations
Whether Arsenal’s business is enough to win the title may at least partly be decided by two of their signings. As the best player on the market in his position, Zubimendi’s acquisition seems shrewd, all the more so given that his alternate Norgaard, will not need time to adjust to the pace of the Premier League.
Gyokeres, meanwhile, is tantalizingly unknowable. His output in Portugal’s top flight is laughably impressive, not just the pure scoring output of 68 in 66 games, but how his 226 penalty box touches were over 50% greater than anyone else in the division. Still, eight of those goals came from four meetings with Boavista, a club who are rated as significantly inferior to Wrexham and Charlton Athletic by Elo rankings. Last season, his one goal in four league matches against Porto and Benfica came from the penalty spot, as did a further 16 in the league alone.
Darwin Nunez and Mario Jardel-shaped alarm bells might be ringing at a few of those statistics, but for every flop from Portugal, there is a Luis Diaz, a forward who might not continue with such gaudy output but still proves themselves to be a very valuable attacker for a great team. Then there is the small sample size of the Champions League, where he terrorized Manchester City and gave no quarter to Saliba and Gabriel.
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Gyokeres is a forward who plays without fear and evidently does not lack for self-belief, telling France Football earlier this summer that he ranks among the best strikers in the world. Brighton’s dispensing of him as a 22-year-old evidently still rankles, and he has heard everything that there is to be said about goals in the Primeira Liga not translating.
“What I managed to do at Sporting, I’m convinced I can do anywhere,” he said. “You haven’t seen the best of Gyokeres yet.”
Suppose Arsenal did, would it be enough to propel them to the Premier League title? It is hard to say. After all, they are not the only contender to have attacked the window with ambition this summer. They can at least breathe a sigh of relief that Liverpool appear to be laser-focused on Hugo Ekitike instead of Alexander Isak, but adding a French youngster who modelled himself on Thierry Henry to Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah has the potential to be a smash hit for the reigning champions.
Whatever Liverpool, Manchester City and their rivals on the continent achieve, Arsenal can at least approach this season knowing they have not rested on their laurels. A side who might have been Champions League finalists but for better finishing and who refused to be blown off course by a raft of injuries have refused to stick with the chips they already have. They are betting big. Time will soon tell if it is a winning hand.
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