A summer of change is looming at the Emirates Stadium.
After capping off a fairly mediocre 2019/20 Premier League campaign, Arsenal bowed out on a high just over a week ago as they scooped their first trophy of the Mikel Arteta era, beating Chelsea 2-1 in the FA Cup final at Wembley.
Despite having fallen behind to an early Christian Pulisic goal for the Blues, who finished the game with 10 men following the sending off of Mateo Kovacic, Arsenal flipped the game on its head thanks to a brace from star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Not only did the win secure the Gunners the FA Cup for the 14th time in their rich and colourful history but it also secured them a place in the Europa League for next season, which will have come as a massive boost to everyone connected with the club, after only managing an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League at the end of the 2019/20 campaign.
Now that a spot in Europe has been secured for next season, Arsenal will be on the hunt to add new talent to their ranks, with no shortage of names having been linked with a summer switch to the Emirates Stadium.
Amongst those to have been linked with a move to North London in recent weeks and months are Gabriel Magalhaes of Lille, Atletico Madrid midfield enforcer Thomas Partey, Philippe Coutinho of Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon youngster Joelson Fernandes and Justin Kluivert of Roma.
But if the Gunners, who are yet to learn their fixtures for the 2020/21 season, are to attempt to bring some of the names on that list to the Emirates Stadium this summer then they are going to have to offload players from within Arteta's squad that he deems surplus to requirements.
Arteta is keen to change things at the Emirates Stadium and freshening up the squad, in terms of arrivals and departures, could be exactly what they need.
As things currently stand, there is a crop of players within Arteta's squad that you would imagine he would be open to letting go this summer.
Here, football.london, with some help from transfermarkt's valuations, has taken a close look at six players Arteta could offload this summer for decently-sized transfer fees to bolster his chances of landing some of his top targets, especially Partey from Atletico Madrid, who has been linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium for most of the year.
With Arteta on the hunt for a new centre-back this summer, he is expected to be open to the idea of trimming his central defensive options.
Both Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis are not expected to be starters for Arteta at centre-back next season, especially the latter, who racked up a grand total of just three minutes on the pitch between the restart in mid-June and the end of the season.
According to transfermarkt, Mustafi is valued at £13.5million and Sokratis £7.2million, meaning those two could bring in more than £20million.
Sead Kolasinac is another player that the Gunners may be tempted to offload this summer, with the Bosnian having now fallen down the pecking order in the race for the left-back berth.
Both Kieran Tierney and Bukayo Saka, though the latter sees himself more as a winger in the long-term, are currently ahead of Kolasinac in the pecking order for the left-back role.
According to transfermarkt, Kolasinac's current value is just north of £14million at £14.4million.
It is in central midfield where Arsenal may find serious value. The trio of Mohamed Elneny, who has spent this season on loan at Turkish club Besiktas, Lucas Torreira and Mateo Guendouzi, who has been frozen out by Arteta, have a collective value of just over £60million, once again according to transfermarkt's data.
With respect to all three players, it is not expected that any of them will figure in Arteta's plans for his strongest starting line-up, once again highlighting that he could cash in all three of them to raise some much-needed funds this summer.
In total, if Arsenal were to spend Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Elneny, Torreira and Guendouzi this summer it could pull in funds of almost £100million, which, of course, could go a very, very long way in shaping the club's transfer plans.
