Arsenal had a busy summer transfer window, to say the least. The north Londoners were keen to end their six-year UEFA Champions League hiatus this season after falling at the final hurdle last term, with local rivals Tottenham Hotspur pipping them to fourth place in May. Since then, technical director Edu splashed the cash, spending in excess of £110 million on five first-team players.
Talented centre-forward Gabriel Jesus, highly-rated Portuguese playmaker Fabio Vieira, American goalkeeper Matt Turner, young winger Marquinhos and versatile full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko all arrived at the Emirates Stadium, which completed Mikel Arteta's set of incomings.
With the Gunners looking to get back into the Champions League, Edu’s summer signings helped propel Arteta’s side to the top of the Premier League ahead of the World Cup. With that being said, football.london rates all the summer signings made by Edu and Arteta.
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Marquinhos (Sao Paulo - £3.15million)
Marquinhos started in Arsenal’s first Europa League match of the season – a match where he scored his first Gunners’ goal. It was expected from there that he would be able to kick on and become an important player for Arsenal, but this was not to be the case.
The Gunners have lacked depth in the wide areas, and Marquinhos has not be able to pounce on the opportunity, but he is still young and needs more time to develop, and a £3million transfer meant that the risk to sign him was minimal.
Summer signing rating: 3/5
Fabio Vieira (Porto - £31.5million)
Arsenal surprisingly announced the signing of Vieira in the summer, and he was expected to create competition for Martin Odegaard in the midfield.
Similar to Marquinhos, Vieira had an excellent start to life as a Gunner, which was highlighted with his brilliant strike against Brentford. But, after this high his performances started to see a dip and he was unable to maintain the levels he showed at the start of the season.
Summer signing rating: 3/5
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Matt Turner (New England Revolution - £5.73million)
Matt Turner was a pivotal signing as Arsenal needed a back-up goalkeeper to challenge Aaron Ramsdale following the inevitable sale of Bernd Leno. Turner has certainly been a good signing for the Gunners.
Despite not playing a single minute in the Premier League, the American was ever present in the Europa League and played a major part in helping Arsenal to top their group in the European competition.
Summer signing rating: 4/5
Gabriel Jesus (Man City - £45million)
Gabriel Jesus has been sensational since making the summer switch to Arsenal from Manchester City in the transfer window. The Gunners were screaming out for a top-quality striker at the back end of last season and it seems they have found that in the Brazilian.
Jesus has had an excellent start to the season under Mikel Arteta, scoring two goals in his first home game for the Gunners against Leicester. And it is because of his explosive start that he had been named Arsenal’s player of the month for August.
Despite going on a scoring drought of nine games, his presence in the attack has been crucial, and has played a major part in Arsenal topping the Premier League ahead of the World Cup break.
Summer signing rating: 5/5
Oleksandr Zinchenko (Man City - £32million)
Arsenal were on the hunt for a new left-back ahead of the Premier League campaign in the summer transfer window. It was an area of weakness last season, and Edu had to solve the issue in the transfer market.
He did this by signing Zinchenko from Manchester City for a reported £30million fee. The Ukrainian has been exceptional since coming into Arteta's side. Full-back had been offering extra creativity from deep earlier in the season.
A calf injury ruled him out for many of the games, but whenever he was available he had been a crucial piece to Arteta’s team in the early months of the season.
Summer signing rating: 4/5
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