Between 2021 and 2022, Arsenal underwent one of the most significant squad transitions in recent memory. The club brought in Ben White, Martin Ødegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Auston Trusty, Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga in 2021, while parting ways with Joe Willock, Héctor Bellerín, Lucas Torreira and Willian.
In 2022, the Gunners strengthened further with the arrivals of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fábio Vieira, Leandro Trossard, Jakub Kiwior, Jorginho, Matt Turner and Marquinhos. Departures included Auston Trusty, Nuno Tavares, Matteo Guendouzi, Alexandre Lacazette, Bernd Leno, Folarin Balogun, Nicolas Pépé and Pablo Marí.
That two-year period marked a major step in the evolution of the Mikel Arteta project, transforming Arsenal from top-four hopefuls to genuine Premier League contenders.
After a Stalled 2024, Arsenal Must Reset Again
Since 2022, Arsenal have attempted to build around the strong foundations already in place. The summer of 2023 saw the signings of Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and David Raya, moves designed to give Arsenal the edge in the title race. They came agonisingly close, missing out on the 2023–24 title by just two points on the final day.
By the summer of 2024, the objective was to complete the squad. But failing to secure a top striker and a high-impact winger stalled the project’s momentum. New arrivals such as Mikel Merino, Riccardo Calafiori, Neto and Raheem Sterling failed to deliver the lift needed.
According to Daily Star, Arsenal are now preparing for a more dramatic summer, with Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta reportedly targeting another overhaul reminiscent of 2021 and 2022. The aim is clear: end the streak of second-place finishes and finally claim the league title.
Who Could Leave to Make Room?
Big-name arrivals are expected, with Martin Zubimendi and Benjamin Šeško among the top reported targets. But a shake-up inevitably means departures. 5 Players Arsenal could sell this summer.
Thomas Partey, once tipped to leave on a free transfer could now stay, though Barcelona have reignited their interest in him. Kieran Tierney and Jorginho are confirmed to be moving on, but there is speculation around several others. Oleksandr Zinchenko could be among those leaving, and the pursuit of a winger has sparked debate over the futures of Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli.
Jakub Kiwior may also be allowed to leave in search of more regular football, with competition for places intensifying.
If a major overhaul is on the horizon, who should make way to push the Arteta project over the line?
Daniel O
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Various reports suggesting Zubimendi transfer is in doubt with him saying he knows nothing about what’s been reported regarding coming to us and that he could well stay at his current club. Could of course be a smoke screen but who knows?
I don’t think there’ll be another major overhaul, since Arteta has spent more than £600m for player transfer since 2019 without any major trophy and there’ll only be one year left on his contract by the end of the upcoming 2025/26 season
Berta’s arrival seems to be a sign that it’s going to be a make-or-break season for Arteta. Kroenke seems ready to hire a manager who’s more aligned with Berta’s vision, if Arteta can’t win EPL, UCL or EL
If there would be another significant squad transition, Arsenal would’ve signed at least one player last month. Yet we only heard about Zubimendi from Romano and Ornstein in the last two weeks
How could Arsenal have signed a player last month when the transfer window was not open?
Liverpool did it with Frimpong and they’re at a very advanced stage with Wirtz, whereas Man United did it with Cunha
None of them were officially signed last month, it’s not possible!
Zubimendi will do the same as he did to Liverpool and sign for Real Madrid absolute certainty he will not be joining Arsenal another top target bites the dust!
That infamous Puma ball which Arteta said was ‘scientifically responsible’ for Newcastle thumping Arsenal home and away in the Carabao Cup SFs is today upgraded to be EPL official ball starting from the new season. So can Gooners do whatever in stopping its implementation? Excuse no. 1 is already obtained for the boss. Arsenal won nothing even from the outgoing Nike ball in the past 20 years in the EPL. Will Newcastle get the EPL title with it?
No rebuild needed. It was a colossal injury crisis that destroyed us this season. Yet despite that, and 6 red cards in the league, we finished with:
the best defense by 7 goals
equal most clean sheets
equal hardest team to beat (although L’pool did lose 2 more once the league was won)
UCL semi final finish
League Cup semi final finish
2nd in the league
So clearly we have a quality squad and manager, we just need some luck next season with player availability. It’s irrelevant who we sign in the summer, if the luck goes against you!
Lucy78,you’ve lost me completely when you say we have a quality squad and manager.
Firstly if we had a quality Squad our manager wouldn’t be fielding the same 11 forever. Or alternatively if we had a quality manager we couldn’t be playing the same formation, the same team at the same tempo against every opposition.
Secondly, do you remember when G.Maghaeles was benched for Ben White to play as C.b? Or when Partey was moved to R.b to accommodate Havertz in midfield?
For me those are not traits of a quality manager, I beg to disagree.
I agree with you Cliff.
So how did we manage to reach the last four of the CL without a quality squad or manager? How does such a team or manager qualify for the CL in the first place?
Okay that makes Pep, Klopp and Wenger bad managers also then because they are pretty rigid when it comes to tactics and philosophy.
AW rigid??? Are you familiar with his management style?
AW took risks and would field a bunch of kids for cup games and definitely for CL games when we already qualified and results don’t matter.
AW used to introduce the first of his substitutes in games around the 60 minute mark to freshen things up, instead of waiting till the last 15 minutes.
AW rotated his team as and when he could to give first teamers a break and let reserves get exposure. He also played his number 1 keeper in the league and CL and reserve keeper for all other cup games.
If that’s “pretty rigid when it comes to tactics and philosophy.”, name one manager who you think is flexible and let’s see if you make any sense
Aw also won things ,that’s the big difference
Lets not rewrite history. Wenger was very rigid in his approach. He played the exact style / brand of football (attacking football) no matter what. That’s one of the reasons that many fans, pundits etc would get very frustrated with him.
He had one way of playing and that was attack with a very porous defence after the Invincibles. He just preferred young players, up and coming youngsters, small technical players and always neglected our defence.
So saying that wenger was not rigid is not true.
There is hardly any manager / top class manager that is not stuck in there own rigid style of football.
What I don’t get is surely as the years go by we don’t win a Prem it should us appreciate Mr Wenger more but it seems to be this need to discredit him because he makes Arteta look not as bad ?
There was nothing that I could see that was disrespecting AW in favour of Arteta. You have a weird fixation that you have to defend him when there is nothing to defend. Different managers and different styles.
Haha the irony.
😂
I dont even have to fight my own battles anymore. Thank you Goonster.
Again another 😂
“My own battles “
Thought you was the JA tough guy that needed to defend the little people ?
Absolute melt job .
@Cliff
You’ve not considered the context though, a very familiar issue with some fans on here.
Given the tools at Arteta’s disposal this season, or lack of tools if you will, we shouldn’t have finished 2nd or got to a CL semi final, but we did. And a huge reason we overachieved is because of the players and the manager. Unless you’re one of those that thinks injuries and red cards don’t handicap a manager?
If that wasn’t the case, as you say, we would have done so much worse! And we also wouldn’t have challenged for the previous two league titles either.
Do think Man C would have qualified for the CL in the league or gone deep in the CL with no striker for most of the second half of the season, amongst so many other injuries as well?
I don’t remember Gabby being benched for White, unless you’re talking about the previous season in those opening few games? If so, Gabby was getting tapped up by Saudi at the time, that’s why Arteta benched him, and rightly so.
I don’t like Partey at RB, that is a mistake, but the majority of the time, it’s because of injuries. Also, find me a manager that doesn’t experiment? Not possible!
No Man City would have used the January window to help their squad ….. Oh wait they did
Don’t the vast majority of manager have their own preferred styles / tactics that they use rigidly?
What types of variant tactical nuances does Enrique deploy at PSG? He plays the same style of football in every game. Ancelotti used the his own rigid style throughout his career. Fergie used his own rigid tactics (Counter attacking style) throughout his career.
I am yet to find many top class managers that don’t have a set style / system of play.
Cliff,
I totally agree with you rebuttal of Lucy78. It’s always excuses. While the injury situation didn’t help along with the 6 red cards. To solely put it down to those two events along with bad luck is laughable at best.
Arteta’s insistence on overplaying certain individuals, confirms to me that the squad hasn’t been good enough, because if it had then he would have had more scope to rotate. The fact that he didn’t or couldn’t speaks volumes. 👍
Yet more lies from you Derek! You’re not another troll are you?
Not once have I ever said that any struggles Arteta has had are solely down to injuries and red cards. I have consistently pointed out issues with tactics, rotation, and speculative issues in regards potential transfers that could help us improve more.
Injuries are not an excuse. Playing with 10 men is not an excuse. It’s called reality!
The reason I put a lot of focus on injuries, is because they are the over riding factor above anything that has hindered us over the last few years. Just look at what happened to Pep this season as the best example of this. He didn’t suddenly forget how to manage overnight!
It’s laughable that you think key injuries don’t matter. Would Palace have even made the QF or SF of the cup, let alone winning it, with no Eze, Mateta, Munoz, and more missing?
I know you won’t answer the examples of City and Palace, because you know I am right.
Lucy78,
Your so right as always, I bow down to your superior knowledge. 👍
No I am just calling out your bs lies!
And surprise surprise, 100% of the time I ask solid questions about injuries from other teams, they never get answered. I wonder why? 🙂
People that think that injuries to key players does not play a big part in a team’s performances are funny.
Liverpool had a lot of injuries in Klopps last season and how did they get on? They finished 3rd:
Newcastle also had an injury raved 2023/24 season and see how they performed.
Pep had KBD and Rodri out this season and see what happened to Man City,
During Wenger’s time we always had injury prone players and it always affected our performances each season. I don’t need to remind anyone about that.
Lucy78,
🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱
His name is not Lucy !
Derek @
Long story short ,it’s his 4-5 account
Dan Kit,
I did wonder as I’ve read your posts in the past questioning how many accounts this poster has got.
But to be honest, I’m still none the wiser regarding the amount of accounts this poster has, if in deed they do have more than one.
You’ve been on this forum longer than me, so you’ve got more history with some of these poster’s I guess.👍
so… on the one hand saying Arteta plays all 11 and then castigating when he actaully did try to change the system
make up your mind fella.. you are all over the place !!
It’s time we stopped massaging our egos about this finishing second nonsense.
Finishing second in itself is not an accolade. It should also be noted clearly that this season we were more close to Nottingham forest in number 7,than we were to Liverpool. Just look at the points difference.
Am afraid if we repeat the same performances next season we may find ourselves in 8th position or lower.
Nobody is massaging their egos about finishing second but every year a team will come out on top and the rest are second down to 20th.
Do you expect that Liverpool will win again? or that we find ourselves battling it out with Forest to get in the Conference League? It is a level of defeatism that almost defies logic. Why not wait and see who we sign and who we get rid of.
Finishing second is nonsense? There’s 90 clubs who might disagree, and would dearly love to swap positions with Arsenal.
If we need a shake up, which is a strange thing to say. We need a Striker, a Left Winger, a play maker, a back up goalkeeper and a manager and we have a chance of glory again!!!!!!
I would put money on it.
Reggie,
Where’s the left back in your list. We all know that Arteta loves a left back.😂👍
Utd are going through a rebuild so we are not coming close.
The transfer window is about replacing and renewing in small numbers – generally speaking – not a wholesale clear out
What I know next season there is no more room 4 error as a must only epl or cl will do anything else is just a bonus.
A very provocative article that will fuel a combustible situation.
Maybe the aim is to inspire efficiency in spending, hopefully our new Sporting director will give it a much needed shot in the arm.
Saka’s last season numbers are not very good compared to Mbuemo… 😬 I think we need 2 new wingers for both flanks and 2 new strikers (1 understudy) so that this injury excuse will not be on the table for Arteta next season again.
QD, it’s hardly surprising that Saka’s numbers are lower than Mbeumo, considering the length of time Saka was out injured.
If we lose Zubimendi we should go for Baleba, that is a much better option with Premier experience and more or less some cost, maybe a little more
Faffing again … can see us ending up with Sterlings twin brother. Not going to bother looking and hoping for some good news and end up disappointed.
In the review of last season no one is talking about City’s 115 plus charges. The so called independent panel’s snail pace baffles me. It’s a deliberate tactic to make us forget the charges and then to exonerate City. Money talks!
I’ve mentioned it for a couple of years now. The lack of rotation between players is costing Arsenal.
It’s an known issue .
Bottom line: Arteta is responsible for that, no matter the injuries, Arteta lacks belief in his not 1st team players.
Solution: buying players he can be confident to select for games.
Here is a list of players I would enjoy playing for Arsenal next season:
Striker: J. David can score, assist, link up play. Good pace, decent price
O. Watkins, for everything we need, he knows the Prem, can be a focal point and bring stability up front.
Attacking left:
Morgan Rogers (can play as a 10) I agrée with R. Parlour, he would help greatly and can deputise for Odegaard.
Rafael Leao, he’s got pace and dribbles in his tank (could he be playing up front as a striker and even emulate T. Henry???)
Nico Williams. Explosive winger
Attacking midfielder:
Morgan Rogers, reasons are mentioned above.
X. Simons
E. Smith Rowe?
Midfielder:
No clue … do you have any idea?