Arsène Wenger has stressed that Arsenal need to lose some players before they buy, with the Gunners recently loaning two more players out of the club and selling a youth midfielder.

Speaking after the loss to Stoke on Saturday, Arsène was asked about bringing in new players to help win those kinds of matches. The Arsenal boss responded, via Metro: “I expect to sell players first, you know, that’s all.

“I expect some players to go because we have too many players and it’s not manageable. Many clubs are in this situation that’s why the transfer market is quiet. So we have 33 players at the moment. That’s too many players!”

Before the match, Arsenal had announced the permanent departure of Gabriel, following Wojciech Szczesny and Yaya Sanogo out of the club this summer. Emi Martinez also had a loan move announced, and since the Stoke match Cohen Bramall and Carl Jenkinson have agreed temporary moves to Birmingham City.

So that’s six notable departures so far, with two players joining the club. However, when you also include Calum Chambers, Joel Campbell, Krystian Bielik and Jack Wilshere returning from loans, the squad still hasn’t been reduced from its size last season.

Therefore more departures should be expected. Lucas Perez seems the most likely to be on the way out, but Kieran Gibbs can’t be far behind after being excluded from any form of senior action recently, pre-season or otherwise. Mathieu Debuchy has also been strongly linked with a move.

Chambers and Wilshere have both had question marks over their futures, but so far nothing concrete. Finally, Joel Campbell looked like another player about to depart, but after his long-term injury on international duty this no longer seems like an option.