Last season ultimately ended in disappointment for Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side, however, the Spaniard can certainly be happy with the way in which his squad are improving.
There is a sense of next season being make or break for the 42-year-old given that he will be five years into his project by then, and arguably that’s more than enough time for the North Londoners to have won more than an FA Cup.
The loyalty shown to the manager is admirable, certainly, though it’s worth touching upon whether the board are falling into a similar trap to when Arsene Wenger was manager.
Arsenal to listen to offers for Zinchenko
Whilst Wenger was at the end of his Gunners career rather than the start, the sense of drift feels the same.
If Arsenal can’t win the league with the squad they have now under Arteta, there’s a school of thought that would suggest it’s unlikely to happen at all.
In any event, one player is certainly unhappy with his lot at the club, according to Football Insider sources.
Oleksandr Zinchenko has fallen down the pecking order at the Emirates Stadium, and at 27 years of age it’s clear that the Ukrainian left-back still has something to offer.
To that end, there’s a clear expectation that the player will leave the North Londoners this summer.
The outlet also report that the club want to recoup as much of the £30m transfer fee that they paid Man City for the player’s services back in 2022.
It isn’t clear if there has been interest in Zinchenko at this point, but once it’s known that he is on the market and happy to move on, there should be an orderly queue forming for a player who has a wand of a left foot.