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Arsenal appear to be on a clear upward trajectory, their points total and league finish improving in each of Mikel Arteta’s first three full seasons. In that time, they’ve done an impressive job of making the squad younger and shifting out some older players who were underperforming. They managed to do this while remaining competitive on the pitch and without the benefit of Champions League revenue (they haven’t been in the competition since the 2016-17 season.)
The challenge now is going to the next level. They have one of the youngest top sides in Europe so, to some degree, you expect improvement to be organic as players gain experience. There are areas where they can strengthen further, most evidently in terms of adding depth in midfield and some more firepower up front. And there will be some players they will want to move on.
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The priority at this stage will also be signing some of the gifted younger players to long-term contracts. This matters because it will likely mean the wage bill rises significantly and it may impact what they can spend on new arrivals this summer. And, in fact, they may need to sacrifice someone like left-back Kieran Tierney to raise funds in order to bolster the side elsewhere.
We agree they could use another defender; we disagree whether it’s in the middle or at right-back. It may come down to who is available. In midfield, Albert Sambi Lokonga’s return from loan can add depth, but obviously Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka and Jorginho (Mohamed Elneny too) are older and the club need to think in terms of succession as well, so we’d expect another significant young signing there. Up front, what to do with United States striker Folarin Balogun, who impressed on loan at Reims, is a…
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