Arsenal: The 5 players that can save the Gunners millions

Arsenal will find it difficult to spend lavishly in the coming windows. Here, then, are five players who could save them millions.

This summer, Arsenal must traverse the transfer landscape with far more trepidation than in years past. While they have never been known for lavish spending sprees, under the current financial pressures enforced by COVID-19, big-money signings are highly unlikely. Arsenal will have to build solutions, not buy them.

As such, here are five players who could save the Gunners millions.

5. Any centre-back

Amazingly, Arsenal have eight centre-backs on their payroll. If that is not surprising enough, none of them are proven solutions at the Premier League level. In fact, the best bet to be a long-term answer for Mikel Arteta is a 19-year-old Frenchman who has never played in England and has made 36 senior appearances in his career.

Arteta will roll with William Saliba in one form or another next season, but his partner is very much unknown. David Luiz is the likely candidate in the short-term, but at 33 and with a year remaining on his contract, he is hardly a long-term solution to the problem. Arteta needs a partner, and it has been assumed that he would dip into the transfer market to find one.

However, what if one of the other six centre-backs were able to finally figure things out? Of the remaining options, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding offer the most likely candidate. In spurts, they have played at a reasonable level in the Premier League. They still have not reached their primes and have not enjoyed a consistent run of starts. If they can get and stay fit, which is a massive if, they could yet finally fulfil their long-hoped-for potential.