By Tony Attwood
The Standard announced that Arsenal have completed two more the signings before this game: Habeeb Ogunneye and Axel Donczew. Ogunneye joins on a free transfer from Manchester United , Axel came from Cardiff.
Elsewhere the Standard offer us this team for the match today
Raya;
White, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Rice, Lewis-Skelly;
Saka, Odegaard, Tzolis;
Havertz
with the added note that Saliba is injured, which I think we knew. Mosquera, Timber, Guimaraes are said to have fitness concerns.
Football Line Ups offer a slight variation….
Raya,
Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Calafiori,
Gabriel, White, Rice, Ødegaard,
Saka, Havertz, Tzolis,
Meanwhile we can of course now report the final collection of insw, outs and loans
Bruno Guimaraes – Newcastle United
Piero Hincapie – Bayer Leverkusen
Ezri Konsa – Aston Villa
Illan Meslier – Leeds United (free transfer)
Christos Tzolis – Club Brugge
Karl Hein – Werder Bremen
Jakub Kiwior – Porto
Christian Norgaard – Everton
Leandro Trossard – Besiktas
Reiss Nelson – released
Fabio Vieira – Hamburg
Gabriel Jesus – Barcelona
Ethan Nwaneri – Borussia Dortmund (loan)
Tommy Setford – Stevenage (loan)
And so after all the fuss and listing of names in the media that is it, and as ever the media got it wrong, so that they can spend the time from now until the next window telling us who Arsenal should have bought, without any explanation as to why, if these journalists know so much they don’t go and earn a huge amount more actually working for Arsenal and getting it right so we win the league.
Except that we did win the league..
That makes 23 players, exactly the number that we had at the start of last season. It obviously does include some under 21 players – I have not checked all the ages but I am sure Myles Lewis Skelly is only 19.
This is an interesting move by Arsenal since it clearly shows that the management were not willing to accept second best players if they couldn’t get the right man for the 25 man squad.
It also means that come January, if there is a player who is available and Arsenal want to buy they can indeed buy him without worrying about the size of the squad, and the need perhaps to let a player go in order to keep within the 25 man rules…
I perhaps should add for clarity that there is an article “How every Premier League club could line up in 2026/27” published on PremierLeague.com which has a different listing which does get to the 25 player total, but it includes several players who have now left the club, and so is slightly out of date and thus not been used here.