Arsenal must upgrade their forward line in the summer with left wing in focus as Andrea Berta given tough transfer challenge
14:56, 24 Mar 2026
Andrea Berta must improve Arsenal's attacking options this summer to support Bukayo Saka
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Andrea Berta must improve Arsenal's attacking options this summer to support Bukayo Saka(Image: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Arsenal enter a summer transfer window hoping to have been crowned Premier League champions. With a nine-point lead and seven games remaining, the odds are currently firmly in the Gunners’ favour.
That said, they must still go to the Etihad Stadium which could be a potential turning point in the campaign. However, should they prove successful, they will go into the summer market having won the English top flight for the first time since 2004.
Following that success, the Gunners invested less than £10million in Robin van Persie, Manuel Almunia, Mathieu Flamini and Arturo Lupoli. They would fall 12 points behind Chelsea come the end of the 2004/05 season, and fall out of the title-challenging conversation almost entirely until Mikel Arteta took over and re-established Arsenal amongst the chasers in 2022/23.
This is certainly not the aim of the club this summer, and the ambition is to create a dynasty of success over many years, winning many titles. While the club have one of the deepest squads in the league, it is still far from perfect.
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While both the defence and midfield contain some of the world’s best players that would get into almost any team on the planet, sadly, the same cannot be said of the attack. Bukayo Saka is the exception to this rule.
Despite, by his extremely high standards, the winger having his most challenging campaign in terms of output, Saka remains considered one of the world’s best.
The best way to explain the situation is to compare the attacking players in Europe’s elite. Consider the four favourites to reach this year’s Champions League semi-finals.
Arsenal, PSG, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. The Gunners can argue that any of their defenders and midfielders would have a good chance of making it into the squads of their three rivals for the European Cup.
Yet when looking at the forwards, Barcelona is currently set up with Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal. PSG have Ballon d’Or-winning Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue.
Bayern Munich have Harry Kane, Luis Diaz and Michael Olise. Every single one of these nine players are considered among the elite level, at the top end of the world class category.
Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke are all very good players. However, being honest, none are considered in the same bracket as the aforementioned group of nine… yet. It may be come could yet enter that bracket, but at the elite level they are still yet to show enough.
This is why the summer remains key for Arsenal to find a player, particularly on the left, with Martinelli and Trossard certainly players the club will be open to offers for, that can get them another forward into the same category as Saka and these other stars.
The problem is: who? Similar to this summer just passed, the club wanted an elite striker, the issue being that those on the market like Hugo Ekitike, Benjamin Sesko and of course Gyokeres were considered great options, but none were guaranteed to be world-class stars from the off.
Ekitike has 17 goals and six assists in 42 games this season, Gyokeres has 16 goals and two assists in 42 games, while Sesko has ten goals and one assist in 28 games. Compare that to Harry Kane’s 48 goals and five assists in 40 games and the gap is huge.
Diaz has 40 goal contributions this season (22 goals, 18 assists). PSG tend to rotate their wingers, which limits their output, but Kvaratskhelia, for example, has started eight of their 12 UEFA Champions League matches and has seven goals and four assists in seven games.
Lamine Yamal has 21 goals and 16 assists this season, Raphinha has 19 goals and eight assists. These numbers are just on a different scale.
There is important context: the Premier League is much tougher to score in for Arsenal than it is for these teams to score in Ligue 1, the Bundesliga, or La Liga. Yet, look at Manchester City’s acquisition of Antoine Semenyo.
Without the ex-Bournemouth player and Marc Guehi, it could be argued City would already be out of the title race. The winger has five goals and one assist in nine league matches for City since his move.
Many argued the Gunners should have moved themselves for Semenyo, but football.london understands that while they were interested, it would have been instead for a summer move, and lacked the financial freedom in January to make a move happen, unlike City.
Now they’re left with finding the right player this summer. Anthony Gordon has been discussed, who has 17 goals and five assists this season, but only six from 25 in the Premier League.
Kenan Yildiz of Juventus is another, but the Turkish international has played more so centrally for the Turin-based club, scoring seven and assisting six from 18 games through the middle. Whereas he has just three goals and three assists from the left.
At 20, Yildiz is also still quite a young player, and whether he could translate that talent to Arsenal remains in question.
RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande, football.london understands, has drawn interest from many of Europe’s elite clubs including Arsenal, who at just 19 years of age is showing some real talent in Germany. 11 goals and eight assists in 29 games for the Bundesliga side is an impressive haul, a player who can use both feet too and has some great speed and close control – plenty of attributes the Gunners are searching for in a future winger.
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However, sources have confirmed to football.london that the player remains happy with the German club at the present time. The winger only joined Leipzig from Leganes last summer for north of £17million.
Planning has been ongoing behind the scenes at Arsenal already for some time. Andrea Berta will be leading the strategy alongside manager Arteta and new addition Maurizio Micheli, who has taken up a senior position within the club’s recruitment team.
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