Deal Agreed: Arsenal agreed deal to sign another attacker after completing Viktor Gyokeres’ transfer as Arteta demands more
This summer has been an exciting one for Arsenal fans to watch. Gone are the days of Edu dragging things out and missing out on key targets; Andrea Berta has come in and been aggressive in the window.
The Gunners have only played two pre-season games but have already signed six players.
That being said, the saga that revolved around new centre-forward, Viktor Gyokeres, was certainly a tiring one. That wasn’t Berta’s fault, however.
Arsenal had predominantly earmarked two strikers this window; Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko. However, despite approval from most at Arsenal, Sesko’s agent priced him out of a move and the Swede was pursued instead.
The Gunners are no doubt happy with their business. This is a player who scored 54 goals in 52 games last season. Even half of that tally in 2025/26 and this will have been a successful acquisition.
But, what’s next? Well, Berta is already hard at work.
What’s next for Arsenal after Gyokeres
It’s likely that for a short while, Arsenal will focus on moving players out of the club. The arrival of Gyokeres took their spending to over £200m this summer, so sales may well be necessary.
Fulham are said to be in talks to sign Reiss Nelson but there’s also interest from Crystal Palace, and that’s where Arsenal’s next deal could take them.
It’s no secret that the north Londoners are keen on signing Eberechi Eze this summer and according to journalist Ben Jacobs, they are now in talks with Palace over a move.
Up to this point, there had only been an agreement between Eze and Arsenal on personal terms.
There have been plenty of developments over the weekend, however, with Football Transfers noting that Mikel Arteta’s side have agreed to pay an initial £30m for the England international and talks are now focused around the payment structure of the remaining £38m of his release clause.
The Independent’s Miguel Delaney reports that sources close to the player believe that he will become an Arsenal player in the next few weeks, confident that a deal will get done.
The Emirates Stadium outfit are said to be Eze’s top choice this summer, but Berta and Co hope to be able to agree a fee of around £60m for his services.
Why Eze could be Arsenal’s new Tomas Rosicky
During the days of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, the team was filled with technical geniuses. Not forgetting the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry, the later years of the Frenchman’s tenure saw players like Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez come to the fore.
There were others too. Think Andrey Arshavin, the scorer of four goals at Anfield, Alexander Hleb and a player cut from a similar cloth, Tomas Rosicky.
Signed from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of just £6.8m, he arrived as one of the most exciting young attacking midfielders on the continent.
The Czech Republic international had a fierce ball strike on him, something we saw when he cracked home his first goal but he also possessed the ability to dazzle defenders, dribbling past them with ease and explosively driving forward.
As Wenger once said: “He always makes things happen, not with individual dribbling but with individual acceleration and his passing. I think when he arrived here he was less of a tactical player and more the ‘Mozart’ from Prague – he was purely a creative, offensive player.”
Injuries really destroyed Rosicky’s career in London, ultimately meaning his numbers didn’t look particularly impressive, scoring 28 goals and supplying 23 assists. Yet, his qualities are still remembered fondly by supporters of a certain generation.
Take injuries out of the equation, and Eze has been built in a similar lab. As The Telegraph’s Sam Dean says, the Palace sensation is a “magician” and the “exact sort of player Arsenal have been missing.”
It’s hard to dispute that claim. Like Rosicky, he’s creative, he’s a goalscorer and like Wenger noted, he’s a bit of a Mozart on the ball.
Eze’s first game of pre-season showcased exactly that, nearly scoring a remarkable solo goal. A little like Rosicky, he bursts forward in possession of the ball. What happened next was audacious, nearly chipping the goalkeeper.
£68m please, Berta, that’s all it’ll take to bring this creative genius to the Emirates Stadium this summer.
Arsenal have plenty of players who put fun into football. Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard are chief among them. Yet, what Arteta has done since arriving at Arsenal is build a team of giants.
Mikel Merino suggested that “we [Arsenal] look like a basketball team” when he first moved to the Premier League and within that, some of the technical aesthetics have been lost.
Eze, however, would bring that back to Arsenal. He was the scorer of 14 goals and the creator of 11 assists in 2024/25.
That wasn’t a one-off either. He’s hit double figures throughout the last three campaigns and is only getting better. Last season was his finest in the red and blue stripes of Palace to date.
He’s a Premier League-proven star and like Declan Rice, would surely settle into things at the club with ease.
