The transfer window has finally closed and on balance, Arsenal has done rather well, however, how do they compare to their big six rivals?
Obviously one cannot really claim to have had a good or bad window until the season is a good three to six months in but that does not mean that we cannot make a judgement on what we know right now.
The supporters of each of the big six will claim their club had the best window and for good reason, there have been some really top signings.
Man City signing Erling Haaland is a superstar acquisition, Man Utd bringing in Antony and Casemiro could be significant, Tottenham landing Yves Bissouma and Richarlison clearly makes them stronger, Chelsea nabbing Auba and Wesley Fofana could energise their season and Liverpool have done some solid business with Darwin Nunez and Arthur.
However, it is not all about players just coming in, Liverpool losing Sadio Mane is massive, Chelsea’s backline was decimated, Man City losing both Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling could still bite them on the butt and Man Utd may yet pay a price for not offloading the disruptive Ronaldo.
Both Tottenham and Arsenal managed to offload fringe players and in doing so have strengthened their respective squads.
For me, not being biased at all, I cannot make a case for any other of the top six having had a better transfer window than Arsenal, I am not saying we won the transfer window but we certainly did not lose it and the results so far confirm that in my opinion.
The only thing about the Arsenal transfer window that I was not pleased with was not doing something with the midfield where we lack quality in depth and we could face a crisis in that position as the season unfolds if injuries affect the likes of Thomas Partey or suspensions via Granit Xhaka.
That said, I am still happy with what we have done and give the Arsenal transfer window between 7/10 and 8/10.
How do you rate our transfer window?
40/100
We started in the window well but we finish like we had hit a brick wall.
6/10
45/100
City really did us a whole lot of good
7 out of 10 for me. Jesus and Zivchenko are the right fit. Viera and the Brazilian kid I don’t know much about. Turner not a spec in Leno. Mission not quite accomplished because we still haven’t managed to strengthen the midfield to champion team standard.
Jesus and zinchenko so far have been excellent signings 9/10
Marquinhos looks to have something about him 7/10
Vieria ,still do not understand that one ,need for a DCM was more of a must and we splashed out 30 odd million on an Odegaard clone ,I mean we haven’t even seen him play yet .3/10
Turner ,so so keeper who probably was signed to keep the American market ticking over for shirt sales .3/10
Overall 6.5/10
Not signing that CM could be the difference to getting top 3-4 ,good though that we have had a fantastic start .
Man Utd may yet pay a price for not offloading the disruptive Ronaldo
That’s a wishful thinking
Tan hag looks a pro who can manage big personalities, something missing at the Emirates with current management. United will be okay with c7 and better with him, let’s just focus on ourselves and not talk about other teams
@Gun down
REALTALK…
I”m not so sure about Arsenal having such a good window i still think we are lighter up front and with injuries in midfield too we coukd gave done with an extra body My other cause for concern is goalkeeper and i just hope Ramsdsle doesnt get injured as have major doubts about Turner The big plus has bern Saliba and the teams start to the seadon is down to the team maturing not so much the artrivals of Jesus and Zinchenko I hope the good run continues but have fears thst Manchester United could comfortably beat us at the weekend Overall rating for window 6/10
5/10
Because if Jesus and Saka get injured we are… you know.
5 out of 10 (if you consider the money spent)
Jesus improves the starting 11
Zivchenko is a solid backup for Thierney and has good utility
But we failed to address our biggest need by not finding a DM to replace Partey who is going to miss at least a third of the season. IMO we lost 4th last season because we lost Partey and Thierney.
We also failed to protect Saka by not finding a solid backup.
I think we threw top 4 out of the window last night.
Last winter our biggest need was a striker but we failed to sign one despite Isaak being available. This summer our biggest need was midfield (after Jesus) and we failed again.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed Lokonga surprises the manager (who clearly rates Elneney higher)
8.5/10
Great transfer window.
Arsenal fans on social media are funny, trending #Eduout yesterday. I’d say they’re clowns.
Weeks ago he’s the best thing since slice bread.
It’s been a great window, and even though we needed a backup, I’m glad we didn’t overpay for Luiz. I’m very happy we didn’t overpay and we walked away.
Nobody expected Partey and Elneny to be out the same time and this early.
To be more factual, if Zinchenko and Tierney were suddenly injured, you won’t be blaming the manager or Edu for anything there.
Anyway still a very good window for me.
Marquinhos will get his Martinelli first season chance, and Nelson would get the chance to save his career. Looks good to me.
Partey isn’t out for months, he’ll be back soon. So Lokonga has the chance to step up, and he already did great in his first game. Plus Ben White and Zinchenko can be used there alongside Xhaka. It’s not actually terrible.
Totally agree on everything you said 👏 👍 👌
8/10
I believe Viera is Saka/ Ode cover and the unfortunate injury which no one ever wanted or prepared for. And to be fair this is why we bought Lokonga last season, and now I assume he is mature enough to take over from Partey, he is similar to Partey, people say he is more of box to box and so is Partey , Partey isn’t a DM. Even at that we still tried to get Luiz in which I credit arsenal for, it is what it is, Aston Villa are willing to take the loss, no complain from me, it now rest on Lokonga to take advantage of the situation and prove why he should be wearing the badge. He got last season as free pass, now is the time to live up to his hype.
Everyone kept saying arsenal are 2 injuries away from crisi, so is everyone else, look at the almighty Liverpool, how do you think city will fare without de bryne and Rodri, no team has superstars as back up, the level always drop when main players get injured
We have done exceptionally in this window and on the pitch first time we won our first 5league games since 20yrs, or more? No complain from me., unto Utd, get the job done guys, it’s gonna be soft work it’s just utd
Agree with your sentiments.The lack of a dedicated DM may come back to haunt us, but other than that, and my doubts about the calibre of Turner, we have recruited well.Now we all can focus on the matches and the performance of the team.So far we have done well, and apart from Man City, I believe we are as good as any of the other top four contenders.
Am worried about Tuner as well but no many teams has proper back up goalie .
I don’t remember city or Liverpool 2nd goalie, it’s all average keepers everywhere that’s why Leno or Martinez were never going to be contented being 2nd choice, same as Henderson of Utd. As fans we want perfection in every area but considering from players point of view, it’s not fair. Look at Martinez, fabianski with us, not playing make them complacent and shit until they got regular football
The early window was superb, the late window was a complacent screw up. Still a chance to sign someone like Ross Barkley, on a short contract, who is a free agent, and who would be a good backup
One year contract with the option of second year would work for me
Seriously??? Ross Barkley……who is missing out when he plays then? Viera and smith-rowe?
What an absolute waste that would have been…..hes not even a DM.
Barkley isn’t DM though. I don’t know what he is anymore
Florian Grillitsch too is still available. He is contract free. Both he or Barkley can fill a void of ‘negligence’ and redeem the great screw up.
the great screw up…..I think that might be you.
How can anything be screwed up before it has actually happened? Negativity at its finest….just waiting to say told you so….like that means anything.
hothed
Reality….not negativity. Facts not your ‘hope’.
@sean I would take Grillitsch too
@hothead not quite sure who has been negative? I certainly haven’t
Both Barkley and Grillitsch would do a decent job for us. Would rather have them as options than no one at all and risk playing others out of position. Barkley maybe just needs new surroundings he’s hardly played at Chelsea.
I also think Ben White would do a decent job in DM. ESR has hardly played amd to be honest I’d rather see Marquinhos given a chance to rotate with Saka and play ESR through the middle
Sean your declaring the sky has fallen with us 100% and when we haven’t kicked a ball since the window closed. Not sure what you consider facts but what your saying doesn’t fit the definition. Either way round all we are all doing is speculating.
Reality is we are top of the league and have signed well. You might have wanted a DM, you didn’t get one let’s see how it works out come January. Imagine suggesting Barkley as well? Your clearly overreacting if you start suggesting Barkley is a must. All players who can play Barkley’s position are fit for starters.
What reality exactly? You are making assumptions and deciding you know better then the management team. Assuming injuries, assuming we do not have adequate cover, assuming our tactics. We pretty much have replacement in each position and players capable of covering in worse case scenarios.
Get behind them, its not like we have not progressed substantially in the past few years and that should continue over the next few years. Rome wasnt built in a day.
Hothed
You need a cold shower
We are behind the team. I watch every game, including the U21’s if shown. You are sadly and deludedly reactive to critique. Man up
9/10 Some people are ridiculous with their fifa requests 😀 Trust the process, its been working pretty well so far.
We have back up, we also have Saliba (essentially a this season signing). We have improved in all areas and have lok pushing on this season. Injuries cannot just be assumed by bloating the squad…..thats been the issue this past 10 years with panic. We did the transfers early, we are 5 from 5. its only 12 prem games before the Jan window open this year due to world cup and we have enough rotation to deal with our Europa group. Get some perspective people!
and what is everybodies problem with Turner? have you ever seen him play? hes an international keeper and most likely a good enough back up for the minimal games he will likely play.
I imagine its the same people that had the same issues with Ramsdale last year until they realised hes actually pretty damn good.
I am very disappointed that we did not
get a backup for Partey who is always injured. Also we will have problems if Saka or Martinelli are injured. Our bench is very limited and not of the same quality as City or Liverpool
Very poor because we do the same mistakes that happened back in 2016 during Arsene Wenger’s era at least we’re at the top of the league the right now then injury prone started why hesitating on bringing in another DFM meanwhile partey and Ellen are injured at least we the chance to secure a player that can replace them if Xhaka can give us sambi can not give us what we want sambi is a good player but he need much time to adjust now Saka is not at his very best at least they could secure the signature of a player like Zaha, Yeremi, Gakpo, Neto for back for him now we’re loosing it again because if you ask me I don’t see top4 is sure for us except Allah’s grace.
Youre right, top 4 isnt secure. It also isnt secure for any other team (with exception of city). However we certainly have a squad capable and togetehr and a start capable of achieving that goal.
I really dont understand what you people want sometimes…..I imagine even if you supported city, you wouldnt be happy with the ‘business’ that has been done.
MORE MORE MORE
hothed, I could not agree more with your pertinent “to the point” post!
TALK ABOUT HOW SOME FANS ARE SELF ENTITLED!!
a
Florian Grillitsch (born 7 August 1995) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or centre back for Dutch Eredivisie club Ajax and the Austria national team.
He plays as a DM
So? If he was any good enough, he’ll have a club innit?
Stegodon
Even Memphis Depay is clubless. Do you reckon he is good enough as a back up forward?
Arsenal have decided to take a risk of having marquinhos and f. viera as the backup to Saka. since we have B. White and Zinchenko and Sambi who can cover in midfielder, Arteta has opted to wait until at least January to know the direction to take. To me it seems a bit risky but lets wait and see what happens next.
7 1/2 out of 10 (which is still a pass mark as far as I’m concerned) . Fair enough we should have signed a DM cover for partey , but I wouldn’t have wanted us to pay some huge some of money for a guy who will be always on the bench. I guess there were many factors the coaches and staffs were considering , FFP, the playing time of Lokonga, Elneny ( an unfortunate and unseen factor) and the general reduction in the wage bill. All in all this is a test for MA and how adaptive to circumstances he can be, we’ve seen managers even Wenger move and play players out of position to sure up shortages , some worked very well others not so well. It will interesting to see. Anyways after man utd the games aren’t all that bad in terms of difficulty its October that is the issue. Let’s hope partey is fit by then. #trusttheprocess #coyg.
Feels a bit like being 3-0 ahead and narrowly winning on 3-2 at the end. We needed reinforcements at DM, Zinchenko was going to cover there, but even he is out injured. I’m not sure why we didn’t bring in Tielemans, he obviously wanted to come, although we never know the details and Luiz was a better fit. I’m also not sure why we were so keen to offload Bellerin for free to Barcelona, when we didn’t want to for Betis, especially as we’ve been stabbed in the back by them with Auba. We should’ve had a no sell on clause there. We have to get better at selling players on, The amount of free giveaways we’ve had has been ridiculous. No other club does this, Leno was a bargain. People were saying we did well not to buy in the January transfer window, but that probably cost us the Champions League, which would’ve more than offset the money spent.
I agree with the rating of 7-8 out of 10. Every player that was supposed to leave has gone to a new club so outgoings part was a success. That being said, we should have brought in a midfielder and a winger, since we let go of pepe at rw (Nelson is injured, marquinhos may be inexperienced) and we have several injuries in midfield. Overall good, but could have been better with 1-2 more players.
I must confess this might just be our best window for a while. The clearout is completely done, was owk with the squad before the double injury strike “which the we all know the made effort to sign a cover even tho it wsnt successful’.
just hoping for less injury before the january window opens, then we can fixed the gaping hole. Atleast we still have some cash to spend..
buy dm to take over from moh elneny in jan, integrate him slowly then by neXt season he should be ready.
let see how maquinhos will cope before thinking of the next move… For this window is a success. Shoutout to the loan team also
#COYG
8/10 for me.
Signings of Jesus and Zinchenko are outstanding.
Start to the season has been 10/10.
We’ve got rid of most of the players we didn’t want. Hopefully we keep up the momentum we have created.
We’ve been unlucky with injuries and to be fair I’m glad we now don’t just pay ridiculous prices for players like Man Utd do.
Hopefully we finish in the top 4 and win EL so next summer we sign two quality MF Savic of lazio being one of them
Hopefully we have a great game Sunday.
Come on you gunners
One good thing about not adding anyone else to this squad from my experience of watching Wenger, is that he was able to play good football.
The only problem is this number 6 position needed to be address from the devil was a boy.
We don’t have a midfield that can help secure top 4 .. haven’t for years .. it’s not just about backup for partey .. so again hoping others falter rather than making a statement of intent … a stronger attack and a quality utility player in zrvchenko .. so it’s a 6 out of 10 for me .. butt lack of ambition with endless focus on potential is apparent … they say Brazil is a country of the future and always has been .. certainly seems to sum up feud philosophy !!!!
Edu’s
We got in some good guys, could have gotten more but didn’t. Oi vey…
We work with what we got. Next stop OT. COYG
9/10
We have spent big again – pushing the FFP limit – and spent wisely, not only have good players come in but it is part of a coherent strategy. We added two promising youngsters to add to those bought last year and two experienced players who are still only 25. The only one older than that is the keeper.
The exits were a matter of getting them done, we were never going to get huge money for players that everyone knows we do not want and most only had a year or two on their contract.
The important matter is we have a young, ambitious, talented squad and the bad apples are out the barrel. Things are looking good.
9/10 some of the ratings above are ludicrous. I get 7/10 but 6 or lower? C’mon.
Guess a lot of people who like to be negative have had to move the goalposts from Arteta’s spending to the club lacking ambition again with other clubs spending such large amounts.
Tuchel’s spending in particular surely guarantees Chelsea the title if some previous comments on Arteta and what a proper manager would do with that kind of money were to be believed.
Imagine if we had bought Luiz and Neto and not won the league this year….and the next 5 breaking all records…..would never be good enough.
Some people are just deluded, but some of us just enjoy the ride which at the moment is pretty good 😀
9/10
Was the objective THIS YEAR to win the PL? I don’t think so. Any more than top 4 was an objective last year – until it opened up towards the end of the season EL was the real-world objective along with getting on with a clear-out.
POINTS:
– Many good acquisitions (some unknowns as yet – Vieira, Turner).
– Clear-out pretty much complete.
– Also cleared-out some youngesters who were never going to make the grade.
– Stood up to attempted blackmail by clubs and players
That last point is important to me. Betis and Fiorentina tried it on and didn’t get the player they wanted. Barcelona playing our unwanted player should be weaker. Bellerin may have got something he’s happy with – but it wasn’t Betis, however I suspect Torreira will not be happy being in Turkey.
Villa tried upping the price and we said no.
All of that creates a good platform for negotiation in future windows. It’s important in any negotiation for the other side to believe that you might walk away.
OTHER POINTS:
– Unlucky with injuries early on
– I’m not convinced that we play with a DM as such. Not signing one is not necessarily the end-of-world problem some seem to think.
– Aubameyang showed his mercenary nature, no-one with Arsenal in their blood would go and play for a London rival. I never liked the self-important little twerp so I hope Chelsea crash and burn – and take him down with them.
NOTE: We can still sign free agents and have players loaned.
Also the rules allow for emergency signings, such as if you can’t field a goalkeeper.
The first set of “POINTS” was supposed to say “POINTS ON TRANSFER WINDOW” not sure why that disappeared.
The window for me has been pleasing but also disappointing. Love Jesus but i like big powerful centre forwards better, i like dominant ball winning midfielders or at least one. While Partey is that, a cloud hangs over his head. I am not 100% on Ramsdale but at the moment he is our no1 and thats ok but the no2 in case of injury worries me. So 7 out of 10 for me for the window. We did miss a couple of targets but that is usual, so we will see wether the window can be a 9 or 10 out of 10 at the end of the season.
Reggie, too bad we couldnt have sent Odegaard with a written competetive offer to put in front of Haarland!
I am still concerned about the continuing ignoring of a DM/holding midfielder since the departure of Gilberto Silva.
As for Aubameyang going to Chelsea, hopefully that doesnt come back to bite Arsenal and the Club gets something from the sell on by Barcelona.
👍Ozzie.
It’s actually very arrogant to think all the other top teams will just sit back and watch Arsenal continue to improve till we win the title. If we don’t win a silverware in the next 3 to 4 years, many of our top talents won’t extend their contracts. We should be taking every season as an opportunity to get to the top if we are really ambitious. Expecting other teams to just fall off just because we are building a team for the future is very silly. For the sake of this club, I hope and pray I’m wrong.
What does that even mean? When have we not continued to improve the past few season? Why would this stop? It should hopefully become even better with Champ league football next year (fingers crossed) and then a better ability to challenge city, whilst competing with pool, utd, spurs and chelsea.
Do you think they will also all lose all of their players? They cant all win the league every year.
If City win the league for the next few seasons, does that mean they will own every promising player in the world?
Rather than pay inflated £’s for an average backup midfielder I’d rather see academy player Mat Smith given playing time.
100% same with Nelson.
If everyone is fit they dont make the 23 for the Europa League, but shpuld be in our 25 man squad anyway.
Im hoping they let Lewis leave on a free so that both Sousa and Walters are eligible for Europa as well. Currently there is only room for one or the other.
Lewis has gone maye
I am very underwhelmed for the end of the window.
But I do think this FFP thing affected us. Plus making massive lossed on our outgoing players..
Was hoping for the midfield to be bolstered but as always we go into the season with the “If only we could have strengthened here and there” talk.
I am not that confident anymore.. But we will have to see how the season pans out..
L am happy that the transfer window is closed and over…
I will rate it 8/10 because we have a very promising window and for the first time after Wenger left I am happy with our playing style….
We are not afraid or inferior to any teams again and Jesus Gabriel has really improved our attack, in fact Martinelli and Saka are following his foot step, marking and attacking defenders without fear of injuries…..
What I am after its about the way we play now, we defend together from our attackers through the midfielders to the defenders and that’s great…
If you observe our game against villa, Lokonga didnt mark it was the attackers and the defenders doing the hard tackle and marking for him, he was just doing the simple job in the middle of the park….
I am not afraid of man utd at all, I am only afraid of the match officials ( ref and the var people), even though they beat us( I pray not so), we will still move on and support the team, onward and upward…..COYG…..
Xeka the Portuguese midfield player is a free agent. Might be worth a punt before he is snapped up. He is only 27.
5 in 39 out.
8 8 5 … hundreds of millions spent .. if we don’t finish in top 4 there are only 2 people to blame .. for the luvvies on this site it’s all about change of style and potential .. there are certainly signs of former but the only game we kept up the quality for 90mins was bmouth the rest was in patches allowing opponent back in to game in every one .. potential here means top 4 finish nothing else .. time will tell but with the current midfield it will be a struggle .. the window was a missed opportunity .., would have been a 7 but the sheer idiocy of the last few days dropped it to a 6
8/10. Arsenal had the most important incommings done at the start of the windows. Well done. We will benefit from it in the long run. I think Lokonga and Viera will come good soon.
It is important though that MA doesn’t wait too long with rotation of some of the key players.
We have a very young squad now to be more optimized in the future. We do not need to spend big on more players in the future. Players we did not get in this window, maybe we can get those for free next summer. In the future we can afford to spend on one quality player.
I think this season is Xhaka’s and Partey’s last. The club would return for Danilo in January and then wait for Douglas Luis or Tieemans and a proper DM (Declan Rice if you ask me) in the summer.
Comparing last season squad with this season’s squad we had a good window…..7 / 10
Disapppointing how – despite being clear at top pf Prem and not dropped a single point- CERTAINFANS, yes you Sean W, seem to seriously believe they as rank amatuers know more than the professionals who run our team and who are doing, in case SOME have not noticed, rather well!
Such arrogance that the non Prem or even professionally experienced AMATEURS, actually think they are better judges of our club(and its available finance , let us not forget!)than the successful MA and Edu running things.
And all this, while we are yet to drop a single point and are well clear of ALL those who are our main rivals for third or fourth place.
The word “arrogant ” doesn’t even begin to accurately describe SOME Jeremiah type fans!
A “Jeremiah” is a prophet of doom, in case you have not come across that word before. Perhaps “FAINTHEART” may be a better word though!