Arsenal: First 3 items on the summer to-do list

3. Buy a dynamic midfielder

With Mesut Ozil out of the way and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang either staying or turned into a wad of cash, we can move forward with our primary need—and no, that isn’t a centerback. It’s a dynamic midfielder to properly round off our options.

Granit Xhaka stays. Dani Ceballos could stay, depending on the price and the season. Lucas Torreira could be sold and Matteo Guendouzi is still a wildcard. That’s a lot of uncertainty. Thus the links to Thomas Partey have been coming in hot and heavy. Partey would take a decent chunk of money to get to the Emirates, but he completely changes the face of the club, whether that be the midfield or the defense. He helps them both.

With the departure of Ozil, Arteta can start thinking about what shape he wants this midfield to take as well, with options galore not being handcuffed to the No. 10 position. The first step, though is creating a firm foundation, and a Xhaka-Partey spine is incredibly strong.

Once we do that, we can start thinking about what that leaves us to invest in this defense and upfront, but it has to be our first priority to change the face of this midfield. Of course, it doesn’t have to be Partey either. Could be… I don’t know… Marcel Sabitzer?