With just over two weeks remaining of the transfer window, Arsenal have managed to get themselves into a pretty favourable position. The Gunners got most of their incomings done early on signing Matt Turner, Marquinhos, Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko all before the end of July.
This is arguably what's helped them get off to such a positive start in the Premier League, with Mikel Arteta's side winning their first two games against Crystal Palace and Leicester scoring six goals in the process. The club are still hopeful of bringing further player in, but for right now their primary focus is on getting players out of the door.
Pablo Mari joined Lucas Torreira, Flo Balogun, Nuno Tavares, Bernd Leno, Arthur Okonkwo, Auston Trusty, Dinos Mavropanos, Matteo Guendouzi, Alexandre Lacazette and Charlie Patino in having officially left the club this summer last week. Despite this vast amount of exits though, Edu's work is far from over.
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The club have already admitted that their squad is oversized and they are aiming to trim it down before the window closes September 1st.
"We have a large squad," Arteta said last month. "We have to make some decisions on the players that we're not going to be using consistently and be fair and straight with them and that's a process that is going to start very soon as well. We have to, and now we have to make things happen."
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Overnight goalkeeper Runar Alex Runarsson also headed out of the exit door after securing a loan move to Alanyaspor for the season.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles is further away from an exit as things stand. He hasn't been involved in either of the two matchday squads for Arsenal so far this season and doesn't appear to be part of Arteta's plans. The England international had interest from Nottingham Forest in the summer, but that has gone cold. He has a year left on his current deal with the Gunners who would unsurprisingly like to sort an exit.
Hector Bellerin also has 12 months remaining on his deal and is attracting interest from Real Betis who want to make his loan from last season a permanent transfer. The Spaniard would love to seal a move to his boyhood club and is willing to take a wage cut to make it happen.
The major stumbling block is over whether a fee can be agreed. Arsenal unsurprisingly would prefer this, but having set a precedent by showing their willingness to terminate player contracts in recent years, they have weakened their negotiation stance somewhat. Edu told football.london during an interview that he views these terminations as investments, and the prospect of repeating the trick has not been ruled out as of yet.
For their part Betis have indicated that due to financial struggles, they would prefer to get a deal done on a free. "There is no expectation of further reinforcements. We would have liked to analyse it from a different point of view, but there is an economic situation that means we cannot do so," manager Manuel Pellegrini said, as per Mundo Deportivo.
"The objective is to keep the squad as strong as possible following the exits of Joel, [Cristian] Tello and now [Marc] Bartra. It allows us to replace them just like last year. The sporting criteria, the work of Antonio [Cordon, Sporting Director] and the arrival of important players for free has allowed us to maintain our footballing strength."
There is also uncertainty over the future of Nicolas Pepe. The Ivorian is unlikely to start many Premier League games if he stays with Arsenal, and with just two years remaining on his deal the Gunners would be open to selling. The Ivorian has high wages, though, and would need to be replaced if he were to go, all of which makes a deal difficult. As things stand, nothing is thought to be close with regards to an exit, but things could change in the final weeks of the window.
One player who seems almost certain not to be leaving this summer is Reiss Nelson. The England Under-21s international has been desperately unlucky with injuries yet again and picked up a quad problem in training that is likely to keep him out for some time.
"He felt something in training, we scanned him, and the doctor came with bad news," Arteta said in his press conference ahead of the Leicester game. "It’s a muscular injury; hopefully, he will be back soon."
In the academy it is also possible that several players could go on loan. Miguel Azeez and Kido Taylor-Hart expressed a desire to head out on loan for the season earlier this summer in interviews with football.london, while it is also understood that several clubs are in the mix to take Brooke Norton-Cuffy for this campaign after the 18-year-old signed a contract extension with the Gunners. Salah Oulad M'Hand is another who could head out this season.
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