Arsenal…get moving. While everyone else is out there doing transfers, it feels like Mikel Arteta and his team are sat around doing nish.
‘Exploratory talks’, ‘initial contacts’, ‘considering’, ‘monitoring’, ‘keeping tabs’ are just a few of the maddening bits of transfer jargon being used to describe Arsenal’s summer window activity, or lack thereof.
Liverpool won the Premier League at a canter and have already signed Jeremie Frimpong, with Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez likely to follow. Manchester City are correcting their mistakes with swift, decisive business. Meanwhile, Arsenal’s most advanced deal is for back-up goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga for £5million.
Arsenal have to win something, anything(!), in 2025/26. After three straight second-place finishes, it couldn’t be clearer where Arteta needs to strengthen. Here are five upgrades the Londoners have to make this summer…
Kai Havertz
Let’s start with the most obvious one, shall we? Arsenal need a striker. They need one badly, probably more than any other club need to recruit for a specific position.
The club’s well-documented desire to sign a striker and the fans’ desperation for one is an unfair reflection on Kai Havertz as a footballer, because he’s not a natural centre-forward. He might have become a more natural option since joining Arsenal, playing a huge part in their relentless form in the second half of 2023/24, but even in the summer of 2024 it was clear he should not be Arteta’s first-choice No. 9.
After selling Eddie Nketiah for around £30million, Arteta went into 2024/25 with Gabriel Jesus and Havertz as his striker options. Both are good, but very different players, neither renowned for their ruthless goalscoring ability. This has ultimately held the Gunners back in their quest for a first Premier League title since 2004, with Arteta still yet to sign a replacement for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who left in the 2022 winter window.
A centre-forward is the final piece of the puzzle for Arsenal. There are other positions Arteta could and perhaps should improve, but this is the upgrade that turns them into champions, if that ship hasn’t already sailed.
They’re dilly-dallying over RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, seemingly put off by his £70m asking price, while Viktor Gyokeres is practically waving from Lisbon waiting for a bid, as Manchester United and Juventus circle.
Arsenal always take their time with big-money signings, often having two or three bids rejected before eventually getting a deal done. But there’s not even been a derisory opening offer for Sesko or Gyokeres yet. It’s still early in the summer, but everyone else is getting their business done. Even United have bought Matheus Cunha and bid for Bryan Mbeumo.
Sitting still while your rivals work at 100 miles per hour is going to transfer onto the pitch. Arsenal cannot afford to mess around anymore. Buy a bloody striker; we’re not sure how many time we have to say it.
MORE: Arsenal targets dominate list of the best available strikers this summer
Gabriel Martinelli
A new striker is Arteta’s top, top priority, but signing an elite left-sided forward is also important. Clearly not as important given the Sesko/Gyokeres rant, but important nonetheless.
Martinelli’s best season was undoubtedly 2022/23, when he scored 15 Premier League goals as Arsenal came agonisingly close to winning the title. Since then, he hasn’t exactly plateaued, but he’s failed to replicate that form with two fairly meh campaigns on the left wing. He looks like a player who’s hit his ceiling, and that makes signing a new left-winger one of Arteta’s summer ambitions.
Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams has slipped away, with Barcelona expected to sign him. His £48m release clause was tempting, but not tempting enough once his salary demands and bonuses were factored in. Arsenal never pulled the trigger and are now toying with the idea of Rodrygo from Real Madrid, though we’ve all been around long enough to know that’s nothing more than a pipe dream.
Then there are the extortionate Premier League options: more reliable, and proven in Arsenal’s division. Morgan Rogers or Anthony Gordon would be fantastic, but also so, so expensive. In other words: nice idea, but not a chance.
We’re banging our heads against the wall with the club’s left-winger ‘pursuit’ too. Who knows where Arsenal will turn, or whether they’ll do anything at all, but they are crying out for an X-factor player on the left. Arsenal fans can’t cope with another season of Bukayo Saka being doubled- and triple-marked. A world-class player on the left ends that nonsense. Rafael Leao would be lovely.
MORE: Top 10 wingers available this summer features Arsenal, Liverpool targets and Man Utd outcast
Thomas Partey
Signing Martin Zubimendi was always the plan, and part of that plan involved keeping Partey around for some much-needed midfield depth as Jorginho drifted off into the Brazilian sunshine.
For once, Partey had a productive season and was actually available throughout. Injuries have defined his Gunners career, but right on cue – in the final year of his contract – the Ghanaian was fit and playing well. That creates a real dilemma for the club’s hierarchy: do they offer him a new deal on £200,000 a week, or let an important player walk for nothing?
Given his injury history and age (32), the latter makes far more sense, even if he has been important.
With Partey likely gone and Jorginho already at Flamengo, Arsenal will need more than just Zubimendi. Mikel Merino offers something different and will be more available in midfield, but moving him deeper isn’t the answer to the Partey-and-Jorginho-shaped hole. Nor is Albert Sambi Lokonga, who returns after an underwhelming loan at Sevilla.
But a Lokonga-style signing probably is the way to go: someone with enough experience to contribute now, but young and cheap enough to keep quiet when they’re not starting.
MORE: Top 10 available defensive midfielders features Arsenal-bound Zubimendi and Man Utd star
Leandro Trossard
Squad depth matters, and we’re not pretending only regular starters are worth talking about. Martin Odegaard had a difficult season, for instance, but it would be nonsense to suggest he needs replacing.
It might feel harsh to single out Trossard, but he represents the need for attacking reinforcements. The Belgian is an outstanding super sub, one of the best in the business, but remains largely ineffective as a starter.
He still has his moments and is rightly seen as one of Arsenal’s more clutch goalscorers, but he shouldn’t be more than an option off the bench in the Premier League and Champions League. That’s his ideal role. If he wants more elsewhere, Arsenal aren’t likely to stand in his way, as long as the price is right.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko
Two for the price of one here, with the overriding point being that Arteta needs to sign a full-back. Zinchenko is available, technically, while Tomiyasu (who you’d be forgiven for forgetting exists) missed 99% of 2024/25 through injury and has been a permanent sick note since arriving from Bologna in 2021.
Myles Lewis-Skelly looks like Arsenal’s first-choice left-back for now, but with Riccardo Calafiori enjoying a full pre-season, the Italian could well force his way into the starting XI. Jakub Kiwior is another option, but only really in emergencies.
Kieran Tierney has gone. He didn’t play many minutes last season, but he still played some. Those minutes need to be filled by someone else. Zinchenko surely won’t be here to do it, and Tomiyasu probably won’t be fit.
A defensively frail full-back and a just plain frail person need to be replaced if Arsenal want proper defensive depth and the kind of steel required to compete on all fronts.
MORE TRANSFER FEATURES ON F365
👉 Man City duo to Everton? Premier League bomb squad players reassigned to rival clubs
👉 Transfer rumour power ranking: Two new Man Utd links, Arsenal feign surprise over Sesko
👉 Twenty biggest transfers in the world in 2025 summer transfer window