Arsenal's dream XI: How the Gunners wanted to line up this season

Martin Macdonald

• 1 Sept 2021 16:22 BST
• 3 min read

Arsenal spent more money in the 2021 summer transfer window than any other club in the world.

The Gunners spent over €174 million (£150m) on new talent, including:

Ben White - £50m from Brighton

Nuno Tavares - £7.2m from Benfica

Albert Sambi Lokonga - £19m from Anderlecht

Martin Odegaard - £30m from Real Madrid

Aaron Ramsdale - £30m from Sheffield United

Takehiro Tomiyasu - £17m from Bologna

Though all of these players are yet to be ingrained in the club and spent time on the pitch together, Arsenal fans will still be rightfully worried at their start to the new campaign which has seen them lose their opening three matches and fail to score a goal.

That is the first time in the illustrious history of the club that has happened.

There is a general feeling that, though some of these players may come good, Ben White and Martin Odegaard especially, none of them have greatly improved the Arsenal starting XI despite the huge transfer outlay.

Also, if plenty of reports are to be believed, plenty of these new arrivals did not represent first choice acquisitions for Mikel Arteta and director of football Edu.

Arsenal's wishlist XI

Two of the positions in the starting XI are down as N/A as those spots are taken by Kieran Tierney and White, who would still represent first-choice players in the team.

As for in goal, Arsenal eventually signed Aaron Ramsdale for £30 million to basically come in and be their backup keeper for this campaign.

This was only after they failed to sign Andre Onana from Ajax.

At right-back, they attempted to bid for Kieran Trippier of Atletico Madrid, but neither the Gunners nor Manchester United were able to pry him away from the Spanish capital.

After Hector Bellerin joined Betis on loan, the North London outfit brought in Takehiro Tomiyasu from Bologna as an alternative to Trippier.

Arsenal apparently offered Sergio Ramos MORE than Paris Saint-Germain to make the switch to the Premier League, but the Spaniard naturally sought to move to France with the better opportunity to win trophies.

Granit Xhaka was widely expected to leave in the summer and Arsenal tried desperately to sign Manuel Locatelli of Sassuolo, but even though they were ahead of Juventus in the race for his signature, the Italian wanted to sign for the Bianconeri.

Yves Bissouma was also targeted, but nothing came of that one.

In attacking midfield, Arsenal were left embarrassed when Aston Villa beat them to the signing of Emiliano Buendia even though the Gunners had been tracking him for well over a year.

James Maddison was always going to be too expensive, while Bernardo Silva allegedly turned down Arsenal in order to either stay at Man City or sign for Barcelona.

In attack, Lautaro Martinez emerged as a dream signing, but that never, ever looked likely.