The Weekly Arsenal Digest

The one trophy that keeps getting away

Six wins from six, top of the league, and a manager days from signing a new contract. Tonight at Portman Road Arsenal restart the competition that humiliated them in March, with a defence held together by improvisation.

Six months ago Arsenal walked up the Wembley steps as losers. Manchester City beat them 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final on 22 March, Nico O'Reilly scoring twice, and a season that ended with a first league title in twenty-two years began its run-in with a reminder that one pot has eluded this club since 1993. Tonight, at 12 noon Pacific, the Gunners walk out at Portman Road to start it all again.

They do so having won everything they have played. The Community Shield against the same Manchester City, 3-0. Coventry City at home, 3-0. Aston Villa away, 1-0. Chelsea at the Emirates, 2-1. Napoli away in the Champions League, 1-0. Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, 2-0. Eight goals scored in the Premier League, one conceded, twelve points from twelve, first on goal difference.

What makes the run remarkable is who has not played a minute of it. William Saliba was withdrawn after half an hour of France's World Cup semi-final defeat to Spain in July with a back problem the club described, in a statement on 23 July, as requiring a managed recovery programme and an absence of an extended period. There has been no surgery and, as of Mikel Arteta's press conference on 11 September, no new timeline.

That single absence reshaped the summer. Arsenal spent GBP 51m plus GBP 4m on Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa on 21 August, a signing the club framed explicitly as cover for a centre-back crisis, and Konsa made his full debut against Chelsea because Cristhian Mosquera had gone off injured at Villa Park. Jurrien Timber only returned to team training in the second week of September after a groin problem dating to March. Ben White limped out of Saturday's win with a groin strain and missed Monday's session.

“He will have his chance. He will have his minutes, and he will have to earn them like anybody else.”

Mikel Arteta on Max Dowman, 14 September

So the team that lines up in Suffolk will be a guess. Kepa Arrizabalaga is the expected goalkeeper. Timber needs minutes and may take one centre-back slot; the other could go to Marli Salmon, the seventeen-year-old who signed his first professional contract on 29 August and has not appeared for the senior side since the FA Cup tie at Mansfield Town in March. Piero Hincapie and Myles Lewis-Skelly are the likelier full-backs.

Further forward the interest is in the players who have been watching. Martin Zubimendi has not started a Premier League or Champions League match this season. Viktor Gyokeres has played twenty-seven minutes across the opening four league games and has yet to start one. Noni Madueke, Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze are all in the same bracket: expensive, capable, and short of rhythm.

And then there is Max Dowman, who is sixteen until New Year's Eve, sits outside the twenty-five-man Premier League list because of his age, and has been an unused substitute four times already, including in Naples. He played an hour for the under-21s against Chelsea on Saturday instead of travelling to Sunderland. Arteta would not promise a start, which in the current climate is its own kind of answer.

Ipswich Town, back in the division and tenth with six points from four, are not a soft landing. They have scored seven and conceded ten, which is to say they will have a go. Arteta's line all week has been that there is no second tier to this squad, and that every competition counts. The argument for taking him at his word is sitting in the Wembley record books, unpleasantly recent.

Key facts

Record

Won 6, drawn 0, lost 0 in all competitions this season

Premier League

P4 W4 D0 L0, 8 goals for, 1 against, 12 points, 1st on goal difference

Tonight

Ipswich Town v Arsenal, Carabao Cup third round, Portman Road

Kick-off

12:00 noon Pacific / 8:00pm UK, Sky Sports+

Missing

Saliba (back), White (groin), Mosquera (muscle), Nwaneri (on loan)

Last League Cup

1993. Lost the 2026 final 0-2 to Manchester City

The title race after four matches

• 1ArsenalW4 D0 L0, GD +712
• 2Manchester CityW4 D0 L0, GD +612
• 3Leeds UnitedW2 D2 L0, GD +48
• 4Hull CityW2 D2 L0, GD +38
• 5BrightonW2 D1 L1, GD +87
• 6ChelseaW2 D1 L1, GD +17
• 10Ipswich TownW2 D0 L2, GD -36

Everyone has played four. Arsenal lead on goal difference. Correct to Monday 14 September. Source: Football Web Pages.

Who is scoring

Martin Odegaard

4 in all competitions (Community Shield, Coventry, Chelsea, Napoli)

Bukayo Saka

3, all in the Premier League, including the penalty at Sunderland

Kai Havertz

3, and nine in his last eleven competitive starts

Riccardo Calafiori

1, the opener against Manchester City in the Community Shield

Bruno Guimaraes

1, the long-range strike at the Stadium of Light on his fourth start

The manager is in the last year of his contract. According to Fabrizio Romano that is about to stop being true.

Mikel Arteta's contract expires at the end of this season, a fact that has hovered over the club since the spring. Fabrizio Romano reported on 14 September that the extension is in its final stages, with lawyers working through the remaining details, and described Arteta as very, very close to signing. The proposed term is three years.

The timeline matters. First contact with his representatives came in March or April, before the title was mathematically won. Josh Kroenke called a new deal an utmost priority in May. Arteta himself, speaking to Sky Sports on 15 August, said he wanted to stay and that the club would resolve it in a very organic way when the possibility arose.

Nothing is signed. But a manager who has won the league, reached a domestic cup final and started the defence with six straight wins is not a difficult negotiation, and the direction of travel is unmistakable. Expect an announcement rather than a saga.

Zubimendi, Madrid and the January question nobody at the club wants asked

A Spanish journalist says it is done. The evidence that matters is the team sheet.

On 14 September Javi Roldan of El Confidencial said flatly that Martin Zubimendi is going to be Madrid's signing in the winter window. The figure attached by Spanish outlets is EUR 70m, the same sum Arsenal paid Real Sociedad in the summer of 2025.

Treat the claim itself with care. It is one reporter, amplified by aggregators, with no corroboration from David Ornstein, Fabrizio Romano, the BBC or Sky. Nothing in it has reached even the concrete-interest tier.

The underlying fact is another matter, and it is not in dispute. Zubimendi has made four substitute appearances in the Premier League and one in the Champions League this season. He has started neither competition. He lost his place late last season and the arrival of Bruno Guimaraes for GBP 75m has not made getting it back any easier.

TEAMtalk add, on their own sourcing, that Zubimendi would be willing to push for an exit if he is not playing regularly by January, that Real Madrid have kept contact with his camp, and that Chelsea are watching. That is a plausible shape for a story rather than a story. It is also the kind of thing that becomes true if a player spends autumn on a bench.

David Ornstein's verdict on Arsenal's summer was blunt, and the numbers behind it are stranger than the headline suggests.

Arsenal spent heavily and ended the window without the attacking signing they wanted. Ornstein's assessment, published on 2 September and relayed by Daily Cannon, was that the club failed to land a level-raiser in attack, having pursued Vinicius Junior as the primary target and then Julian Alvarez, Malick Fofana, Bradley Barcola and Morgan Rogers. Christos Tzolis, at GBP 34m from Club Brugge, was a replacement for Leandro Trossard, not an addition.

The Vinicius thread is worth closing properly, because it keeps being resurrected. Ornstein reported that Arsenal were prepared to commit major funds and that the move had been approved at every level of the club. Romano reported on 5 August that Real Madrid had improved their offer materially. On 6 August the player signed a six-year extension to 2032. Anyone still writing that link is recycling.

Alvarez failed for a different and more bruising reason. Ornstein, on 29 August: the Argentine spoke to Mikel Arteta and said he doesn't want to come, his heart set on Barcelona. Atletico Madrid would have done a deal. Arsenal were prepared to agree one club to club. The player said no. Reports of a January return are aggregator speculation and should not be attributed to Ornstein, who said the opposite.

Two late near-misses give the window its texture. The Daily Mail's Isaan Khan reported that assistant manager Gabriel Heinze personally contacted Inter Milan about Lautaro Martinez in the final week; Inter refused to entertain it. And Chema Aragon, sporting director of Racing Santander, said publicly that a loan for Real Betis winger Pablo Garcia seemed like it was done with Arsenal before Betis chose a co-ownership arrangement instead.

What Arsenal did do was sell. Gabriel Martinelli went to Al-Hilal on 3 September for GBP 60m guaranteed, a club-record sale, two days after the English window had shut and so at a moment when the money could not be reinvested. The Saudi window was still open. That sequencing, more than the fee, is the thing to keep an eye on in January.

Ins and outs, summer 2026

IN: Piero Hincapie

Bayer Leverkusen, GBP 34.5m, 25 June. Option-to-buy triggered after his loan season

IN: Illan Meslier

Free agent, 9 July. Two years plus an option. Third-choice keeper

IN: Christos Tzolis

Club Brugge, GBP 34m, 23 July. A Belgian league record fee

IN: Bruno Guimaraes

Newcastle United, GBP 75m with no add-ons, 9 August. Four years plus one

IN: Ezri Konsa

Aston Villa, GBP 51m plus GBP 4m, 21 August

OUT: Gabriel Martinelli

Al-Hilal, GBP 60m, 3 September. Club-record sale

OUT: Jakub Kiwior

Porto, EUR 17m plus EUR 5m, announced 6 May

OUT: Leandro Trossard

Besiktas, GBP 17m including add-ons, 15 July

OUT: Christian Norgaard

Everton, around EUR 8m, 5 August

OUT: Gabriel Jesus

Barcelona, GBP 8.6m, deadline day

OUT: Fabio Vieira

Hamburger SV, deadline day. Fee reported between GBP 7.7m and GBP 8.6m

OUT: Karl Hein

Werder Bremen, EUR 3m, 24 May. Option-to-buy triggered

OUT: Reiss Nelson

Contract terminated by mutual consent, 27 August. Joined Feyenoord as a free agent

LOANS OUT

Ethan Nwaneri (Borussia Dortmund), Tommy Setford (Stevenage), Ismeal Kabia (St Mirren), Charles Sagoe Jr (Kalmar FF, since February)

Window closed

23:00 UK, Tuesday 1 September 2026

The recruitment that matters most this month happened several divisions below the first team.

Arsenal confirmed on 11 September that Andria Bartishvili will join in 2027. The seventeen-year-old Georgian left-sided attacker is contracted to Kolkheti 1913 and currently on loan at Iberia 1999, and cannot register in England until he turns eighteen. Arseblog put the fee at up to EUR 4.5m, a figure that is single-sourced and worth treating as such; SportsView reported a five-year contract.

His numbers are unusual. He debuted in April 2026 at sixteen years and two days, the youngest player in Erovnuli Liga history, scored his first senior goal a month later, and made nineteen appearances for a title-winning side. He is billed as the next Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a comparison helped considerably by the fact that his agent handled Kvaratskhelia's move to Napoli. Liverpool were also interested.

Four days earlier Arsenal took Mylo Bernard, a sixteen-year-old striker, from Crystal Palace after eight years in their academy. He joins the first-year scholarship intake with a pre-contract to turn professional on his seventeenth birthday, is an England under-16 international, and scored six times for Palace's under-18s while playing above his age. He is the seventh academy addition of the summer under new academy director Pascal De Maesschalck.

Everything else currently attached to Arsenal, sorted by how much of it you should believe.

Gabriel Rajkovic, 15, Valerenga. The most substantive of the incoming links. Graeme Bailey of TEAMtalk reported on 12 September that Arsenal and Chelsea have compiled extensive dossiers after watching him through the summer. He is the youngest player in Eliteserien history at fifteen years and twenty days, a record he took from Martin Odegaard. No move is possible for years. Concrete scouting interest, single-sourced.

Rio Ngumoha, 18, Liverpool. Alan Nixon reports Arsenal are watching rather than negotiating. He has started once in Liverpool's opening four league games, on the right rather than his preferred left, with Bradley Barcola and Victor Munoz now ahead of him. Contracted to 2028. Monitoring, single-sourced.

Noni Madueke out. CaughtOffside report Juventus and Atletico Madrid monitoring, with a January loan and option to buy described as the realistic shape. He is contracted to 2030 and has barely played. Rumour.

Nico Paz (Como) and Lamine Camara (Monaco) both surfaced in Sunday newspaper gossip on 13 September. Real Madrid hold a buy-back on Paz; Monaco want around EUR 70m for Camara, with Chelsea and Liverpool also named. Gossip-column tier.

Iago Machado (Corinthians) and Angelo Stiller appeared in Monday and Tuesday round-ups, the former with Chelsea now said to be competing. Victor Osimhen headlines reappeared on 14 September but trace back to reporting from January 2025 and should be ignored. An Endrick link on 13 September has no primary source at all. Recycled or unsupported.

On contracts, TEAMtalk's Fraser Fletcher reported on 4 and 7 September that Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber, all out of contract in 2028, are in advanced renewal discussions, with Timber's the furthest along, and that Real Madrid figures have pushed for Rice to be treated as a priority target. No Ornstein or Romano corroboration. Single-sourced, moderate credibility.

A back four by committee, a No. 9 problem that is not a problem yet

How Arteta is winning without his best defender, and why Kai Havertz keeps starting ahead of a striker who cost more than the house.

Start with the defence, because everything else follows from it. Saliba is out indefinitely. Timber missed the first month. Mosquera was hurt at Villa Park. White came off at Sunderland. Arsenal have conceded one Premier League goal in four matches regardless, and that goal came inside ninety seconds against Chelsea.

The solution has been positional rather than personnel-based. Gabriel Magalhaes anchors, Konsa slots in beside him or at right-back, Hincapie plays inside or left, and Lewis-Skelly has started all four league games at left-back, 273 minutes, no cards. Calafiori and Lewis-Skelly both came back in at Sunderland with Timber on the bench, which was the first sign of genuine choice in that area since July.

In goal, David Raya has had the week of his season already. At the Stadium of Light he saved Enzo Le Fee's penalty after a decision Arteta called unacceptable and soft; Bruno Guimaraes scored two minutes later. Jamie Carragher and Thomas Frank both spent the weekend saying he has improved. He is nominated for the Yashin Trophy.

“Gyokeres is never taking Havertz's place. Ever.”

Jamie Carragher, Sky Sports, 7 September

Which brings us to the forward line. Havertz has three goals in four and nine in his last eleven competitive starts going back to mid-April. Gyokeres has twenty-seven minutes and no starts. Carragher's argument, made on 7 September, was that Havertz's pressing and defensive work are load-bearing in this system and that only one of the best players in the world would displace him.

It is a fair reading of Arteta's preferences and an uncomfortable one for a club that invested in Gyokeres as a goalscoring centre-forward. Tonight is the obvious audition. So is the next month, with Lille at home and Bayern Munich away in the Champions League in October.

One tactical footnote with real money on it. The Premier League instructed officials this summer to police holding, pulling and wrestling in the box far more strictly at set pieces, a change widely read as a response to Arsenal scoring 19 goals from corners in 2025-26, a competition record. Nicolas Jover's department has not yet been the difference this season. Whether that is the rule or the sample size is the season's most interesting open question.

Availability

William Saliba

Out. Back injury aggravated on World Cup duty with France. No timeline given as of 11 September

Ben White

Doubt. Groin strain picked up at Sunderland, missed Monday training

Cristhian Mosquera

Doubt. Muscular problem from the Aston Villa match. Arteta: this game or the next one

Jurrien Timber

Available. Back in team training, needs minutes after a groin issue dating to March

Ethan Nwaneri

Unavailable. On loan at Borussia Dortmund for the season

Everyone else

Fit. Arteta reported no fresh problems after Sunderland

A fourteen-year-old scored in Naples, and it was not even the strangest thing

Mixed results across the age groups, one genuine phenomenon, and an under-21 side still looking for its first win.

Begin with Luis Munoz, who is fourteen years old. On 9 September he came on in Naples and scored a ninety-fourth-minute winner as the under-19s beat Napoli 2-1 in the UEFA Youth League, Andre Harriman-Annous having opened the scoring and Igor Tyjon providing the assist. It was Arsenal's first opening-day win in the competition since 2015.

Munoz already holds the record as the youngest player in Youth League history, set last season at thirteen years and 343 days against Bayern Munich. The goal made him the second-youngest scorer in the competition, three days older than Max Dowman was against Atalanta in 2024. Three days after Naples he started on the right wing for the under-18s.

That under-18 side, coached by Josh Smith, has turned its season around. A 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace on 12 September, Emerson Nwaneri scoring on 33 minutes and Callan Hamill on 84, both assisted by the fifteen-year-old schoolboy Jaden Maghoma, was a second straight win and a second straight clean sheet after a poor August. Emerson Nwaneri, sixteen, is Ethan's younger brother.

The under-21s are the sore spot. David Horseman, appointed on 17 August to replace Max Porter, is still waiting for a first win: 1-5 at Barnet in the EFL Trophy, 1-1 with Crystal Palace, 2-2 at Brighton, and 1-4 at home to Chelsea on Saturday. That last one was 23rd in Premier League 2 on two points.

There were consolations. James Scanlon, the nineteen-year-old winger signed from Manchester United on 29 August with a 50 per cent sell-on retained, scored his second goal in consecutive matches. Dowman and Salmon both started and played an hour. Elijah Upson and Evan Mooney drew praise. Horseman's own verdict was that his team did not play with enough conviction in the final third.

Less good: Habeeb Ogunneye, the twenty-year-old right-back signed on a free from Manchester United on 30 August, went off on 67 minutes and was seen afterwards on crutches. No diagnosis has been published, and nothing beyond that should be assumed. The under-21s played Leyton Orient in the EFL Trophy this morning Pacific time, too late for this edition.

Names to know

Luis Munoz, 14

Winger. Youth League's youngest ever player, now its second-youngest scorer

Max Dowman, 16

Attacker. Four times an unused substitute, zero minutes, pro contract activates 31 December

Marli Salmon, 17

Centre-back and under-21 captain. First pro contract on 29 August, four senior appearances

Emerson Nwaneri, 16

Midfielder. Ethan's brother, scored against Palace, sent off against Brighton

Jaden Maghoma, 15

Forward. Schoolboy, two assists against Palace, Youth League debut at 14

James Scanlon, 19

Winger from Manchester United. Two goals in his first two PL2 games. 24 caps for Gibraltar

Thirty shots, seventy touches in the box, no goal

Renee Slegers called it one of the most frustrating afternoons she can remember. The worry is how familiar it felt.

Arsenal drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace at the Emirates on Sunday having taken thirty shots, nine of them on target, with 79 per cent of the ball. Opta counted seventy touches in the opposition box, a total only one team in WSL history has bettered without scoring. Mariona Caldentey hit the crossbar in the first half. Lisa Baum hit it in the second.

Slegers was unsparing afterwards: very frustrating, and there might be some recency bias here, but as far as I can remember, this is probably one of the most frustrating ones. She did note it was a step forward on chance creation from the previous weekend. Lotte Wubben-Moy identified the finishing as the clear fault.

The reason it stings is arithmetic. Arsenal finished second in the WSL last season on 51 points, four behind Manchester City, having lost once and drawn six. A goalless home draw with a promoted side in September is exactly the shape of the problem. It also made history for Crystal Palace, the first promoted team ever to keep a clean sheet away at a side that finished the previous season in the top two, with former Arsenal goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin in goal.

The opening weekend was better. Baum, nineteen, signed from RB Leipzig for a club-record fee in their direction, scored on her competitive debut to win it 1-0 at Brighton on 6 September, driving into the box and finishing into the roof of the net. She is the third teenager to score on a WSL debut for the club.

Georgia Stanway, a free transfer from Bayern Munich, attempted 114 passes on that debut, a record for any midfielder in a first WSL appearance for a club. Against Palace she played in a double pivot with Kyra Cooney-Cross. Misa Rodriguez has two clean sheets from two. Kim Little, the captain, became the club's outright record WSL appearance holder on Sunday with her 182nd.

One late addition worth noting. Elisa De Almeida, a 28-year-old France international with 52 caps and 154 appearances for Paris Saint-Germain, arrived on deadline day for around EUR 600,000, the only cash signing in a window otherwise built on free transfers, brought in because Arsenal were down to three fit senior centre-backs. She was an unused substitute on Sunday.

It gets serious now. Manchester United, bottom of the table with no points and seven conceded, come to the Emirates on Saturday. Then HB Koge at Meadow Park on Tuesday in the first Champions League league-phase match of a campaign that also contains Barcelona and OL Lyonnes, the side that knocked Arsenal out at the semi-final stage last season.

Arsenal Women in brief

WSL

P2 W1 D1 L0, 1 goal for, 0 against, 4 points. Manchester City lead on 6

Unbeaten run

19 consecutive WSL matches without defeat, per Opta

Injured

Daphne van Domselaar (knee surgery), Katie Reid (ACL, not before November), Michelle Agyemang (ACL)

Summer in

Stanway, Batlle, Misa Rodriguez, Reuteler, Cerci, Baum, Damm, De Almeida

Summer out

Beth Mead (Man City), Katie McCabe (Chelsea), Victoria Pelova (Tottenham), Laia Codina (West Ham) and six more

Champions League

Koge (H), Paris FC (A), Benfica (H), Barcelona (A), OL Lyonnes (H), Inter Milan (A)

No international break, but plenty of Arsenal elsewhere

A compressed post-World-Cup calendar means no September window. The club's players scattered across Europe are busy anyway.

The senior side's own European week produced a 1-0 win at Napoli on 9 September that flattered the hosts. Arsenal had 76 per cent of the ball and an expected-goals figure around four. Eberechi Eze headed wide at the back post, Bukayo Saka skied one through on goal and Piero Hincapie missed from two yards. Martin Odegaard settled it in the second half, curling in off the post after wall passes with Ben White and Christos Tzolis.

Ethan Nwaneri is the loanee to watch. Nineteen, sent to Borussia Dortmund on deadline day with Dortmund covering his salary in full, he has three appearances in a fortnight: 55 minutes off the bench in a 3-2 Champions League win over Villarreal, in which he hit the post on 50 minutes, and then a first start, 65 minutes, in a 3-0 Bundesliga win over SC Paderborn in front of more than 81,000. Sporting director Lars Ricken called him technically gifted.

Tommy Setford, twenty, has settled quickly at Stevenage in League One, debuting in a 2-1 win over Luton Town that ended their winless run and featuring in a 5-1 away win since. Ismeal Kabia, twenty, played 77 minutes for St Mirren away at Rangers. Charles Sagoe Jr continues at Kalmar FF in Sweden, where he has around two goals and eight assists in his first fifteen competitive games but the team has lost its last two, to Djurgarden and Elfsborg, by the same 1-0.

Loan watch

Ethan Nwaneri, Borussia Dortmund

3 appearances in a fortnight. Hit the post against Villarreal, first start against Paderborn

Tommy Setford, Stevenage

League One. Debut in a 2-1 win over Luton, then a 5-1 away win

Ismeal Kabia, St Mirren

Scottish Premiership. 77 minutes away at Rangers

Charles Sagoe Jr, Kalmar FF

Allsvenskan, on loan since February. Two goals and eight assists in his first 15 games

On the women's side, two Arsenal players are at the FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup in Poland with England. Jessie Gale, on loan at Newcastle United, has scored in the tournament. Cecily Wellesley-Smith, on loan at FC Rosengard, has also featured. England lost 1-2 to Brazil on 11 September but went through second in Group B on team conduct score ahead of Canada, and meet Nigeria in the last sixteen on Thursday.

• 6Competitive matches played this season by Arsenal. Six won.
• 70Touches in the Crystal Palace box for Arsenal Women on Sunday, without scoring.
• 27Minutes played by Viktor Gyokeres across the opening four Premier League games.
• 14Age of Luis Munoz, scorer of the under-19s' stoppage-time winner in Naples.
• 114Passes attempted by Georgia Stanway on her WSL debut, a record for a midfielder.
• 182Kim Little's WSL appearances, now an outright Arsenal record.

All times Pacific. Kick-offs converted from UK time, which is currently eight hours ahead.

Beyond the window: Arsenal host Lille in the Champions League on 13 October and travel to Bayern Munich on 21 October. The women are at Chelsea on 27 September and at Paris FC on 30 September.