Whether or not Arsenal win the Premier League title this season, the Gunners have clearly been transformed under Mikel Arteta and players for Chelsea and West Ham could be joining the revolution at the Emirates Stadium next season.
Along with Man City, the north Londoners have been in fine fettle during the 2022/23 campaign, but the way they’ve tailed off just recently hints at Arteta still needing one or two big name players to bolster his squad and help get the over the line in the big moments.
Players who have a decent amount of Premier League experience under their belts and who can not only strengthen the Arsenal squad, but also progress them and make them better.
Both Mason Mount and Declan Rice could be looking to move on to pastures new in the summer, and super agent, Haydn Dodge, writing in his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, believes that the Gunners are interested.
‘Declan Rice has always been a recruitment target for Liverpool, but I’m also being told that he would like to stay around London,’ Dodge wrote.
‘I know Mason Mount was a big target for Liverpool around the same time, but both Mount and Rice may be Arsenal bound, and I know there are some communications with Arsenal to have those two based in their midfield.’
It would be quite the coup for Arteta to land two of England’s best young midfield talents and would surely see the Gunners retain their position as one of the leading Premier League teams next season.
For the West Ham man in particular, Dodge sees a move to Arsenal as perfectly complementary.
‘I think Rice suits Arsenal’s style of play and has everything needed as a modern day midfielder,’ he added.
Given the season that both Chelsea and West Ham have had, the chance for Mount and Rice to rekindle the partnership of their Chelsea youth days in the Champions League is likely to prove difficult to turn down.