Arsenal’s summer plan is being drawn up in the shadows. The need to sell is clear, Andre Berta is in place to shape the strategy, and conversations over the next phase of Mikel Arteta’s squad are already under way. The rest is smoke and speculation.
This window, there is no Declan Rice-style saga dominating the agenda, no obvious headline striker chase like the pursuits of Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres. Names are floating, profiles are being assessed, but the picture is far less defined.
Two, though, stand out: Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon.
Financial pressure on Tyneside
According to The Telegraph, Newcastle United are prepared to listen to offers for both Tonali and Gordon if their valuations are met. The club’s ownership is among the wealthiest in the game, yet the reality of Premier League financial regulations still bites. Ambition has a ceiling when the balance sheet starts to creak.
That tension could open the door for Arsenal.
Both players have been repeatedly linked with a move to north London, fitting a pattern that has emerged under Arteta. The club has shifted away from almost exclusively targeting talent from the continent and has increasingly turned to proven Premier League performers.
Recent windows underline the change in approach. Arsenal have gone hard in the domestic market, with deals that, collectively, have pushed past the £120million mark on top-flight experience alone. The message is clear: if you want to close the gap at the top, you pay for players who already know the league.
Gordon and the left-wing question
Gordon would arrive with a very specific job: raise the level on Arsenal’s left flank.
Leandro Trossard, one of Arteta’s smarter Premier League pick-ups, has delivered important moments but still blows hot and cold. Gabriel Martinelli, once seen as a future world-beater, has stalled in his push towards that truly elite bracket. The position feels open to a statement signing.
At Newcastle, Gordon has grown into a driving force, adding end product and edge to his game. His intensity, pressing and direct running would fit neatly into Arsenal’s high-energy, territorial style. Yet the debate around him is not about his current impact, but his ceiling. Is he a very good winger, or one who can genuinely sit among the best in the world in his role?
For the kind of fee Newcastle would demand, that question matters.
Tonali and the Rice conundrum
Tonali brings fewer doubts over pure quality. To many observers, he already ranks among the most accomplished central midfielders in the Premier League. Technically sharp, tactically disciplined, with the engine to control games, he looks like the sort of midfielder a title-chasing side builds around.
The problem for Arsenal is that they already have one: Declan Rice.
Rice has made the left-sided No.8 role his own, driving from midfield, breaking lines and anchoring big performances. It is also the zone where Tonali typically operates at his best. Drop one deeper, and the knock-on effects ripple through the rest of the side.
For Tonali to fit cleanly, either the Italian would need to accept that minutes might not come as freely as they do elsewhere, or Arteta would have to reshape his midfield. That could mean Rice sliding back into a more permanent holding role, potentially affecting any pursuit of a specialist No.6 such as Martin Zubimendi.
It is a luxury problem, but a problem all the same.
Big talent, big calls
What is not in doubt is that both Gordon and Tonali would raise the technical level and depth of Arsenal’s squad. They are Premier League-proven, in their prime years, and suited to the intensity of a side chasing domestic and European honours.
The harder question sits with the accountants and the strategists. With significant sales required and other areas of the squad still in need of attention, is this where Arsenal should commit a major chunk of their budget?
Newcastle, constrained by the rules despite their wealth, look ready to talk if the numbers land in the right place. Whether Arsenal decide that these are the players worth breaking the bank for will say plenty about how bold they intend to be in reshaping a team already on the brink of something bigger.
