Top ten Premier League declines of the season features Arsenal quartet | OneFootball

Despite their lead at the top of the Premier League being cut to four points and some hints of the Manchester City-enforced willies in a hard-won draw at Brentford, even the fiercest of Arsenal deniers would struggle to assert they are not still favourites for the title and are having – by theirs and anyone’s standards – a rather good season.

They trotted through the Champions League group phase with a 100 per cent record, beat a blossoming Chelsea side twice to secure a place in the Carabao Cup final and saw off Wigan in the FA Cup with consummate ease on Sunday to keep them fighting on four fronts. We’re all quite worried.

And thus we are delighted to discover that it’s not all sunshine and roses for the Gunners, as they have more players than any other team in this top ten Premier League declines of the season.

The value decreases since July 1 2025 are courtesy of Transfermarkt – who deal in euros, not pounds – and players with the same decreases have been separated by the percentage drop.

10) Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal): €32m – €20m (-€12m)

The Brazilian hailed his own “amazing achievement” after completing 90 minutes for the first time in over a year in the win over Wigan, in which he scored his fifth goal in 650 minutes since his return from the cruciate ligament lay-off.

That injury goes a long way to explaining why a 28-year-old striker playing semi-regularly for one of the best teams in Europe, with over 100 goals in the Premier League and Champions League combined, is now worth two-fifths of a Jorgen Strand Larsen.

9) Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool): €100m – €85m (-€15m)

A fully-deserved drop-off. If anything he – and Liverpool, given what we suspect will be not unwelcome interest in his services in the summer from Real Madrid and Manchester United(?!) – should be relieved his value hasn’t decreased rather more.

Mac Allister was hugely influential in the Reds’ title win last term and now plays football as though he’s constantly searching for his car keys, completely unaware of anything going on around him in dead-eyed focus on that task.

8) Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal): €55m – €40m (€15m)

He jumped ship to Marseille on loan in January after not starting a Premier League game in the first half of the campaign, but the dip in value is more to do with an overreaction to what had been glimpses of real quality – but only glimpses – in the season before to increase his price to a level beyond what he had produced, rather than a lack of game time.

Nwaneri scoring an excellent goal five minutes into his debut for the Ligue 1 side is why the Transfermarkt nerds (we don’t know how it works) reached that peak value of €55m [£48m], but him doing very little in the three games after that before being dropped to the bench is why that never should have been the case.

6=) Ben White (Arsenal): €45m – €30m (€15m)

Probably should have left in the summer and was then duped into staying in January having been handed some rare game time at the turn of the year before finding himself rooted to the bench once more.

But White will fully deserve a Premier League winner’s medal having been a key part of The Journey, if only a bit-part player now it threatens to reach its conclusion. €30m [£26m] somehow feels like an entirely fair price but also a bargain for what we suspect will be plenty of suitors at the end of the season.

6=) Manuel Ugarte (Manchester United): €45m – €30m (€15m)

There’s a chance the Ugarte still doesn’t understand whom Erik ten Hag was referring to when the former United boss pointed to the word ‘fight’ on the wall at Carrington upon his arrival at the club and said: “This guy brings us the fight.” Confused, Ugarte replied: “Who?”

Maybe Elliot Anderson or Carlos Baleba will because Ugarte sure as sh*t hasn’t. We wonder if any of the training ground walls are adorned with more suitable words to describe the Uruguayan. The toilet stalls might be a good place to start.

5) Bukayo Saka (Arsenal): €150m – €130m (-€20m)

No one (very few people) wants to see Starboy’s name on negative lists such as these, but he has had a bit of a stinker this season by his standards.

The concern will be that having previously been so brilliant because everyone knew what he was going to do but still couldn’t stop him, he is now being stopped quite regularly because everyone knows what he’s going to do. We can’t remember the last time he jinked down the right, cut inside and curled one into the top corner with his left.

4) Phil Foden (Manchester City): €100m – €80m (-€20m)

A very purple patch in November/December saw Foden score six goals in four Premier League games but his form has been pretty rotten besides. Antoine Semenyo hitting the ground running since his £60m move in January has offered a stark and grim comparison with an unbelievably talented footballer who’s lost his way dramatically and now doesn’t get in Manchester City’s best XI.

He was valued at €150m just over 18 months ago and City would now surely welcome a ‘world-record bid’ from Real Madrid with open arms.

3) Mohamed Salah (Liverpool): €50m – €30m (-€20m)

It stands to reason that Liverpool regret their decision to hand Salah a new deal at the end of last season as they’re now forking out a cool £400,000 per week to pay a player who’s contributing nowhere near as much in attack, is arguably a detriment to the team and threw a massive paddy before heading off to AFCON because Arne Slot didn’t start him for a couple of games.

Then again, looking at that value, which feels about right given the downturn and the fact he’ll be 34 come the summer, the Reds bosses will be rubbing their hands together at the thought of that sweet, sweet Saudi gold that’s sure to be on the table in the summer.

2) Florian Wirtz (Liverpool): €140m – €110m (-€30m)

We can all admit now that we got a little bit too excited, Transfermarkt included. Most of us have now rowed back from our position of believing that Wirtz might be The Best Thing Ever after what was a pretty terrible start to his Liverpool career, while accepting that in time he could reach a very high Premier League level and return to that peak.

1) Rodri (Manchester City): €110m – €75m (-€35m)

That value drop is reflected in Pep Guardiola accepting that a guy who used to be a gloriously capable one-man midfield now needs a bit of support from his teammates, whether that’s Nico O’Reilly, Bernardo Silva or other PWLs (players with legs), on the back of his cruciate and hamstring injuries.