Where Arsenal need to strengthen to win the Champions League in 2026-27 | OneFootball

Arsenal‘s quest for a maiden Champions League title fell at the final hurdle, but the Gunners will again be one of the favourites going into next year’s season.

Mikel Arteta has built a very talented squad since arriving in North London in 2019, but there are still one or two weaknesses he and the club should look to solve in the transfer window this summer.

Here’s an analysis of each position in their starting lineup and where it can be improved.

Goalkeeper

Definitely no need to make a change between the sticks as David Raya was Arsenal’s best player across the season and the final.

Perhaps Arteta will look for an upgrade on Kepa Arrizabalaga who proved himself unfit for the big occasion in the League Cup final. An injury to Raya at any point next season could derail a title bid.

Right back

On paper, Arsenal have two of the best right-backs in the league, but the problem is both have proven to be injury-prone.

Jurrien Timber missed 14 matches this season and was only fit enough for the bench in Budapest. Ben White missed 13 and was not available for the final.

Arsenal could look to find a reliable replacement.

Centre back

Barring a major exit, Arsenal do not need to focus on centre back in their summer transfer plans with William Saliba and Gabriel two of the best in the world.

Strengthening elsewhere will allow the likes of Christian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie to provide adequate backup in this spot.

Left back

Arsenal have a lot of left-backs, but none of them have yet nailed down the position.

Riccardo Calafiori looked to have made the position his own at the start of the year, but he missed 13 games through injury and was kept on the bench in Budapest.

Myles Lewis-Skelly, who started his Arsenal life as a left back, has looked much better in a central midfield spot, leaving Hincapie, who is a centre back by trade, to fill in on the flank.

He has done a good job to be fair to him but Arteta and Arsenal will need to assess whether Calafiori can stay fit long enough for them not to dip into the transfer market.

Central midfield

The problem with Arsenal’s central midfielders is not really the personnel but the number of minutes they played.

Declan Rice has played 4,456 minutes for Arsenal this year. Martin Zubimendi is on 4,298. By contrast, PSG’s Joao Neves has played 2,701.

No wonder then that Arsenal arrived at the business end of the season and both their starting options took a dip in form.

Rice was no longer the marauding goalscoring midfielder that started the season, while Zubimendi’s form collapsed so much he was sent to the bench.

Lewis-Skelly into the midfield was an option Arteta tried in a 3-0 win over Fulham and he liked it so much he stuck with it for the final but the youngster was overrun by PSG’s superior players.

One question in the post-final aftermath is why did Arsenal sign Christian Norgaard only to never play him? The former Brentford captain had minimal injury concerns and yet only played 1,040 minutes.

Even if Arteta did not think he was good enough for the big games, he surely could have done a job against weaker opponents to spare Zubimendi and Rice’s legs.

In the summer then, Arsenal will presumably look for an upgrade on Norgaard and a player who can deputise for the usual starting duo.

Central attacking midfield

Put this position in a big red circle and underline it three times. Attacking midfielder is definitely an area Arsenal need to improve on in the summer.

Club captain Martin Odegaard is far too passive, especially in the big moments and he was hooked 67 minutes into the final having touched the ball just 12 times.

The final is not an outlier either. Odegaard has seven goal contributions in the league this season, a number that is not good enough for one of the main attacking threats in the league winners and too often he is not brave enough in moving the ball forward.

Arsenal do have a more track-minded player in Eberechi Eze, but there are still question marks over whether Arteta fully trusts him.

After his hat-trick goals against Tottenham in November, he was soon consigned to a bench role with his next start coming in the reverse fixture.

His minutes have been more regular since then but he was on the bench for Arsenal’s biggest game of the season.

Arsenal then need a reliable attacking midfielder who can break through the lines and create chances for those up top. That could be Eze, but Arsenal may dip into the market for reinforcements.

Right wing

Let’s be honest, Arsenal’s system is not conducive to getting the best out of Saka.

He left the final with a rating of 6.1, the worst of any player on the pitch, but that is because Arteta saddles him with so much defensive responsibility that he cannot push forward as freely as other top wingers can.

There is though the question of is Saka clinical enough, especially in the big moments?

He had a zero percent dribble success rate in Budapest and just one pass in the final third and so it will be interesting to see how he plays in the more attack-minded England setup.

He is clearly very good, but the best of the best also score and assist goals.

The arrival of Viktor Gyokeres was supposed to aid Saka by having a more traditional number nine to aim at but he only registered five in the league this year. 16 players had more.

Saka is amongst the Premier League’s top earners and needs to be the player who wins multiple games for the club.

As for his backups, Noni Madueke had a promising start to his Arsenal career but has not been much good since, making that £48.5 million transfer fee seem very expensive.

Left wing

Arsenal’s left wing could do with a complete refurbishment in the summer.

Gabriel Martinelli looks like a shadow of the player he once was, leaving a 31-year-old Leandro Trossard as your starting option in a Champions League final.

The arrival of Eze and Madueke last summer was supposed to provide more options but Eze has played just 15 games in that position this season with Madueke on just five.

Arsenal then need a top-quality left wing option and one that is devastating on the counter. Of course that is the kind of player profile that a lot of clubs are after but if Arsenal want to make this counter-attacking system work, they need more pace in their front line.

Striker (Viktor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus)

Finally we have the striker conversation.

Arsenal spent £55m on this position last summer and yet Viktor Gyokeres has not truly convinced since moving to the Premier League.

He has got better as the year went on and did score 14 Premier League goals but Arteta still went with Kai Havertz in the final.

Similar to the left wing, Arsenal need a quicker option up front meaning that when Arteta wants to use this low block style, teams like PSG cannot afford to put all of their players in Arsenal’s half and trap them in. Benjamin Sesko, who Arsenal were after, would have perhaps fit this style more naturally than Gyokeres.

The Swede still has a place in the Arsenal squad and it is too soon to write him off entirely but Arsenal do need some other options up front.