At the beginning of the transfer window Arsenal had clear transfer targets and were pushing to sign three priorities in particular. But Gabriel Jesus was the only one the club managed to pull off.
Arsenal instead watched as Barcelona secured a £55million deal to sign Raphinha from Leeds, and Manchester United spent £56.7million to sign Lisandro Martinez from Ajax. Both were players that Mikel Arteta and Edu had made offers to sign but were not willing to go as high as their transfer market rivals.
Missing out on Martinez saw the club pivot quickly and Edu pulled off a Premier League coup with the acquisition of Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko. However, missing Raphinha has proven to be a trickier situation to address.