Been a bit sporadic on the compilation of Arsenal-related thoughts this week, on account of holiday in Portugal and also a little bit of time spent in Seville, as well as being pretty hungover almost every morning of waking up! But given it’s Transfer Deadline Day today and there will also be a press conference from Mikel ahead of the game against Brighton tomorrow, I figured I’d drag my sorry carcass out of bed and compile some thoughts.

It’s interesting because the expectation is that there will be a few outgoings and we know that Eddie to Palace and Ramsdale to Southampton is basically done, but there hasn’t yet been any announcement from any of the parties involved. I wonder whether that is because both Palace and the Saints want their fans to have their deadline day fun as well?

Both deals look 99.9% done and yesterday evening Ornstein dropped an Ornbomb to confirm that we were after Neto as our back up ‘keeper on loan this season. There’s no option, no obligation, just a season at The Arsenal and you can see why Neto would be keen for it. Bournemouth have gone for Kepa on loan and so he’ll be their number one, which means the Brazilian would be number two at Bournemouth or Arsenal, so if he’s given that option he’s clearly choosing The Arsenal. He’ll play in the League Cup, maybe the early rounds of the FA Cup, but as we saw last season he won’t play in the Champions League and it’s a clear decision to have an experienced head in there to act as David Raya’s number two. It’s interesting at how quickly this has developed though, because last weekend and on the first weekend of the season he was Bournemouth’s first choice. Whether Bournemouth had always wanted Kepa or whether they’ve acted quickly because Neto said he wanted this move, remains to be seen. But regardless it’s a good deal for The Arsenal. We get cash for Eddie, we get cash for Ramsdale, we pay Neto’s wages and probably a token loan fee too. It’s a low-cost solution to a clear challenge Arsenal had.

What we do need to see today, however, is some kind of additional movement in the attacking third of the pitch. Because as you and I know right now, we don’t have enough in our attacking end of the pitch to last us a season. Gabriel Jesus’ injury was unfortunate, but not the biggest surprise in the world and Mikel even said that the club would look at their options. I think they have to if we’re honest; we’ve replaced Smith Rowe with Merino, we’ve brought in Calafiori to cover the inevitable Tomiyasu and Zinchenko injuries, Ramsdale will depart for Neto coming in. So we’ve covered our areas of the pitch but not in the attacking side. Fabio Vieira’s gone to Porto, which is one less option, plus Eddie will be out. Between Fabio and Eddie they had just under 1,900 minutes that have to be filled somewhere and if Gabriel Jesus continues to have injury problems then those extra minutes won’t be there. That means there is space for a wide forward across the front three and that’s what I think Arsenal will go for.

Who will that be though?

There seems a few options. There’s been talk of Kingsley Coman from Bayern, who would be my first choice, but if he’s on £300k-per-week that’s a level of cash that I’m not sure Arsenal will drop on a player they will expect to be a rotation option. He’s also just turned 28, he’s missed around 20 games for Bayern last season through injury, so feels like it might be a bit of a risk. The same could also be said for Raheem Sterling, who Chelsea want out and who doesn’t even have a squad number. Again, he’s 29, turns 30 in December but his injury record looks ok. He’d be a guy on big wages too, although I’ve seen some rumours that he’d take a pay cut to join The Arsenal. I think that might interest us, but my hope is that we stay firm and do what happened to us with Aubameyang to Barca; we just wanted those wages off the books and eventually agreed to just wave any fee to give him to them. Six months later and they’re selling him to Chelsea for £10million plus Marcos Alonso. So if we’re going to get Sterling as a rotation option I’d be ok with it, but only on the proviso that we aren’t giving that wretched club a single bean on transfer deadline day.

You want his wages off your books? Absolutely fine, but we aren’t giving you a fee. That’s the deal, take it or leave it.

We are in the strong position. We have options. Let’s explore all options and not be afraid to walk away if the deal sucks. That’s what we all know Arsaenal have been good at in recent years. Our ability to pivot has been well documented and has shown a sensible way of running the club. Just look at the Garcia deal from Espanyol. We offered €20million for a back up ‘keeper, they wanted €30million, rightly we said that’s too much and so we’ve pivoted for a decent enough back up option. I am fine with that. The same happened with the Mudryk situation; we wanted him, the money went too stupidly high, we pivoted to Trossard and the Belgian has been brilliant for us since arriving. It was the same with the Caicedo/Jorginho situation too; quick pivot, be ready to activate your ‘Plan B’ and don’t be arrived to pull the trigger quickly if needed.

And that’s why today I’m kinda cool about whatever happens. We have a very good squad with good players. We will be competitive this season and whilst we can be concerned about a slight lack of depth, it’s not as if Eddie and ESR were used that much by Arteta last season. Merino will be, then if we can get in one more that looks like a good and opportunistic buy, then great stuff. But if not then all eyes shift to Brighton tomorrow and hopefully an opportunity for three points.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for the day. Have yourselves a good one, let’s hope for some fun news, then we can slam this window shut and focus on the Seagulls tomorrow.