The Arsenal player fighting for a first team spot this season

Arsenal took huge strides over the summer as they bid to remodel the squad in a way that would be both financially sustainable and allow them to have the framework in place to then make smaller adjustments with each passing window.

Investing in a young team that will develop in unison and peak around the same time, all the while integrating even younger players to continue the process in a manageable way, has got fans on board.

If this club is to return to where they want to be, there was no other realistic way they could do so. They’ve been through the spell of buying players around 26, just as they’ve tried and failed to invest in those at the latter stages of their careers who were tipped for short-term success.

Key in that thinking is tying down the exciting youth bursting through the academies who can develop in a way that will eventually see them become first team regulars, or if all else fails be moved on for a profit.

Arsenal duo Arthur Okonkwo & Karl Hein are locked in an engrossing first team battle behind Bernd Leno and Aaron Ramsdale

Emile Smith Rowe, Kido Taylor-Hart and Folarin Balogun are a few recent examples, and so is Arthur Okonkwo, who penned a new long-term deal in the summer and was also promoted to the senior team after impressing with the Under-23 side.

Expected to push on and make the No. 3 spot in the team his own after it was agreed he wouldn’t leave on loan, the battle to keep that place has been an engrossing subplot across this season.

Highly rated within London Colney, keeping him tied down was considered a real coup, so to have seen his place as third in line drift away from him was surprising.

Featuring in pre-season, Okonkwo was guilty of a couple of poor errors, notably against Hibernian, while his Under-23 teammate, Karl Hein, looked commanding and composed when he featured. As the season kicked off, it interesting to see Hein selected over Okonkwo, including being on the bench in the opening day defeat to Brentford.

Against AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup he was chosen on the bench ahead of the new member of the senior team, not for the first time either having been 21st man in squads on a few occasions.

Injury then struck in early November after the 20-year-old featured four times for Kevin Betsy’s side, with the battle for third spot continuing to twist and turn as Okonkwo was selected as the 21st man for the recent 4-0 defeat away at Anfield.

With Bernd Leno inevitably due to leave in the summer at the latest, is there an internal solution lying in wait?

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