Whichever way you cut it, hindsight and the fall from grace of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side should really have resulted in a far better season for Arsenal than we are now likely to get as try as we might, well known first XI issues have again come back to haunt us with Arne Slot having a very unexpected start to life at Anfield and Liverpool.
Manager Mikel Arteta continues to do well in the Champions League campaign and with a comprehensive win in our last game, we now have a very tasty two legged quarter final affair against Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid to look forward to. Domestically though, it looks like another runners up spot in the Premier League as especially after such an insipid January transfer window and our failure to add a dyed in the wool striker, few believe we are now going to chase down that 15 odd point gap that exists in the games that remain.
Many Arsenal fans would be forgiven for switching attentions to the coming summer sports like cricket which is always a pull for those who like a flutter, especially during super overs and tiebreakers, which are unpredictable and high-stakes moments. In the [https://ind.1xbet.com/line/cricket/988155-india-premier-league](https://ind.1xbet.com/line/cricket/988155-india-premier-league) alone, there have been 14 super overs since 2008, making them a rare but crucial betting opportunity.
But we are already getting talk of a big summer and if the speculation rumour mill is to be believed we could be looking at quite a few changes over the summer as Arteta looks to bring our average age down, replace those players who will be out of contract come the summer, and then of course, there are the likes of Oleksandr Zinchenko who will be in the final 12 months of his deal come the summer.
As of yet, there have been no new discussions held with the 28 year old, 69 capped Ukrainian international left back, and for a variety of reasons he has only featured 17 times for Arteta during the current 2024/25 campaign.
Speaking to the press recently, he confirmed that talks on a deal extension had not yet been held, but that he was happy to play anywhere for the remainder of the season so that he could play his part in helping us to end it strongly. Zinchenko was the target of German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund during the January window but nothing of substance came of that, and our gaffer did say the other day that talks were set to be held with him over the future despite him slipping down the pecking order this year – the PSV Eindhoven game was only his fifth start of the whole season.
Plenty will be interested to see what happens with his own future now, or whether we look to try and cash in on him the best we can to help fund whatever strengthening we look to do over the summer, and then attentions will turn to other players and their own status and involvement at the club moving forward, as on a speculation rumour mill front we are already being linked with a number of potential incomings, and it may well involve another familiar Manchester City face for our gaffer as it is being reported that Leroy Sane will be available as a free agent this summer, and Arteta has apparently already given his backing to the board for them to begin the chase of him.
Whether another winger should be our priority is wildly open for debate.
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