Rice, Gabriel, Odegaard on the podium – Mikel Arteta’s £828m Arsenal signings ranked | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta has spent around £828million as Arsenal manager and he finally has something tangible to show for his process and the money splashed out on transfers.

That is because Arsenal have been crowned Premier League champions.

Their first title triumph came after a summer expenditure of around £250m, with the additions of Martin Zubimendi and Viktor Gyokeres proving crucial in getting the Gunners over the line.

Arteta has made 37 signings in total, and we have ranked them all from worst to best.

38) Willian (free)

A genuine disaster from start to finish. At least Willian was nice enough to have his contract mutually terminated after a year, helping the club avoid another needlessly expensive pay-off.

37) Alex Runarsson (£1.5m)

No offence to the young man, but Runarsson might be the worst goalkeeper in Arsenal’s history.

36) Raheem Sterling (loan)

In the Premier League 100 club by the age of 27, Sterling is a legend but he is a different player to the winger we saw at Manchester City.

He was unable to stake a claim during Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli’s time injured and was unsurprisingly not signed permanently.

35) Neto (loan)

Edu Gaspar’s parting gift was Sterling and a back-up goalkeeper unable to play in the Carabao Cup. Great job, buddy.

34) Marquinhos (£2.5m)

Just a really pointless signing, this.

33) Auston Trusty (£1m)

Reason for signing: American.

32) Mathew Ryan (loan)

Not signed to boost the club’s fandom in Australia, Ryan played three times for the Gunners.

31) Matt Turner (£5m)

Another American, but actually signed for football reasons. Turner joined Arsenal as USA No. 1 and was a more unreliable back-up to Aaron Ramsdale than expected.

30) Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5m)

Kepa isn’t a bad second-choice goalkeeper, but his latest Carabao Cup final disaster was, well, a disaster.

29) Pablo Mari (£4.5m + £6m loan fee)

Mari was signed because he is left-footed and that is a hill I am prepared to die on.

28) Christian Norgaard (£10m)

Norgaard only cost £10m, so his lack of playing time in 2025/26 is barely worth discussing.

27) Sambi Lokonga (£15m)

Sambi was a midfielder with a lot of promise, joining Arsenal as a teenager with experience captaining Anderlecht. But, yeah, it didn’t work out.

26) Fabio Vieira (£33m)

This is a rare big-money misstep from Arteta. Vieira has struggled to adapt to the Premier League and re-joined FC Porto on loan two summers ago and has just spent the year at Hertha Berlin, where he will surely remain on a permanent basis.

25) Cedric Soares (free)

Cedric is a top professional but the fact he was without a club for six months after leaving Arsenal is probably a sign that he should not have been getting minutes for Premier League and Champions League-chasing Arsenal last season.

24) Noni Madueke (£48m)

The jury is out on Madueke after costing so much money and being another Chelsea signing. Still, he clearly has talent and potential, and not only does Arteta rate him highly, so does England head coach Thomas Tuchel.

23) Nuno Tavares (£7m)

A true enigma of the beautiful game, Tavares can go from looking like a world-beater one game to getting sent off and scoring an own goal the next.

22) Jakub Kiwior (£18m)

Kiwior was a handy squad player and deserved his move to Porto, where he could become a regular starter competing for a starting spot with Jan Bednarek rather than William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.

21) Piero Hincapie (loan)

The fact Hincapie is as low as 21st here speaks volumes about Arsenal’s transfer dealings under Arteta.

20) Takehiro Tomiyasu (£15m)

Tomiyasu is a solid full-back, excellent with both feet and good in the air, but those injuries, man…

19) Riccardo Calafiori (£38m)

Calafiori is brilliant but his injury record is concerning.

18) Cristian Mosquera (£13m)

For £13m, Mosquera is an absolute bargain. He is only 21 years old and has proven himself as an excellent right-back and centre-back.

17) Mikel Merino (£29m)

Turns out he is a decent striker.

16) Oleksandr Zinchenko (£32m)

Zinchenko is another injury-prone Arteta signing. His and Gabriel Jesus’ additions shifted things dramatically – for the better – at Arsenal, making them title contenders overnight by bringing their winning mentality from Manchester City in the 2022 summer transfer window.

His defensive frailties quickly emerged as Arsenal’s Achilles’ heel and in the blink of an eye, Zinchenko was surplus to requirements

15) Gabriel Jesus (£45m)

Jesus was crucial, as already said, when he joined the club from future title rivals City.

Like Zinchenko, his first season was impressive but Jesus never returned to his best after his first knee injury.

14) Thomas Partey (£45m)

The injuries theme continues. Consistency was an issue for Partey as well.

13) Aaron Ramsdale (£24m)

So many Arsenal fans were furious when Arteta signed Ramsdale, who had just experienced his second successive relegation from the Premier League. What a lot of fans chose to ignore was that he was named player of the year at both Sheffield United and Bournemouth in those campaigns.

He quickly proved everyone wrong and became a key player and fan favourite at the Emirates. However, he was surprisingly replaced by David Raya for the 2023/24 season. That especially hurt considering he played such a crucial part in getting the Gunners back into the Champions League, only to make one appearance in the competition in a dead rubber against PSV.

He was sold to Southampton in the 2024 summer window before spending this season on loan at Newcastle United.

12) Eberechi Eze (£60m)

Eze’s five goals against Tottenham Hotspur in the 2025/26 Premier League mean he could have done literally nothing else all year and he would still go down as a good signing.

11) Kai Havertz (£65m)

The jury is still out on Havertz, though he has silenced plenty of doubters with a decent 35 goals and 17 assists in 109 matches.

Arteta took a big risk signing Havertz from Chelsea and initially viewed the German as an attacking midfielder before swiftly ending that experiment and lumping him up top, where he has done just fine.

Not signing a new striker in the 2025 January window looked bad when the window closed but looked catastrophically dumb when Havertz tore a hamstring a week later.

10) Martin Zubimendi (£60m)

Arguably the true final piece of the puzzle, Zubimendi’s form has tailed off in recent weeks, but his impact in his first year at Arsenal must not be overstated by a few tired performances.

Zubimendi has held it down in the No.6 role, helping those around him improve and adding something different to the midfield. He is comfortably an upgrade on Partey and showed as much from day one.

9) Viktor Gyokeres (£55m)

Widely regarded as the actual final piece of the puzzle, Gyokeres has come in and made a significant impact, providing something different to any other striker Arsenal have had under Arteta.

Gyokeres is an out-and-out No.9 and that is clearly what Arsenal needed. His mere presence frees up the players around him and his hold-up play is improving every week.

While the jury is still out on the big Swede, 21 goals in his first season isn’t too bad. And his goal return doesn’t even matter at this stage, only that he is a champion.

8) Jorginho (£10m)

Arsenal fans were furious when Jorginho was brought to the club from Chelsea. He was instantly deemed an aging, unwanted Chelsea player and the Gunners were viewed as doing their rivals another favour. It turns out the Blues were the club handing out a favour.

Jorginho was a fantastic addition, not only with his calming presence on the pitch but his leadership in the dressing room and on the touchline when ‘warming up’. The Italian was like a secret member of Arteta’s coaching team at times and is bound to reunite with the Spaniard legitimately in that capacity in the future.

7) Jurrien Timber (£34m)

Timber missed 99 per cent of his debut season at the club with an ACL injury but has slotted in seamlessly since, playing left-back, right-back and centre-back. He is a fantastic player and £34m is great business.

6) Benjamin White (£50m)

A fan favourite at the Emirates, White was a centre-back in his first season before being moved to right-back, where he established himself as one of the best defenders in the Premier League.

Consistency is a very under-valued attribute and White had it in abundance before a lengthy knee injury.

5) Leandro Trossard (£22m)

After missing out on top target Mykhaylo Mudryk, Arteta turned his attention to a much cheaper – and better – option in Brighton winger Trossard.

The Belgian has scored some huge goals in three years at Arsenal, most recently the only goal in a seriously important win at West Ham.

4) David Raya (£27m + £3m loan fee)

The Raya v Ramsdale debate was relentless and annoying, yet it was a very reasonable argument. Ramsdale had been brilliant in the Arsenal goal for two seasons and was replaced out of the blue by Raya, who joined on an initial £3m loan in 2023 and was signed permanently for £27m in 2024.

A lot of people thought it was harsh of Arteta to dump Ramsdale but the Spaniard has been vindicated. Raya is now arguably the best goalkeeper in the Premier League.

3) Martin Odegaard (£30m + £1.5m loan fee)

Another robbery at only £30m, there’s no doubting how successful the Arsenal captain Odegaard has been in north London.

2) Gabriel Magalhaes (£27m)

There is a strong case for Gabriel being top here, such is the strength of the podium players. He is another whose game has improved significantly under Arteta. The Brazilian has grown in confidence on the ball and is one of the most commanding centre-backs in Europe; not to mention his goal threat from set-pieces.

What a bargain.

1) Declan Rice (£105m)

Arsenal’s club-record signing, thus Arteta’s most expensive signing, Rice has been a fantastic addition and a rare £70m+ success in the Premier League