Last summer looked like it would be a busy one for the club as Unai Emery finally got a chance to make his mark on the squad.
While most eyes will were on the players coming in, there were a host of players set for the door and we were looking at as many as 13 (not counting youth players) departing.
So how many went?
Stephan Lichtsteiner GONE
Out of contract, Lichtsteiner hardly set the club alight following his free move from Juventus in the summer.
He would quite like to stay and at £90kpw I can’t say I blame him.
He didn’t.
Petr Cech GONE
Cech, we knew, would retire at the end of his current Arsenal contract leaving the club looking for a new number two.
Emi Martinez seemed to think it will be him and he wasn’t wrong.
Nacho Monreal GONE
There were reports back in January that Arsenal had exercised their one-year extension option on Nacho’s contract but, at the time of writing, that still hasn’t been confirmed by anyone inside the cub.
Aaron Ramsey GONE
Another we know for sure if off in the summer, Aaron will earn £400kpw with Juventus and his agent landed a cool €9m for getting him to Turin for nothing.
Arsenal lose out in all the ways with this move.
Danny Welbeck GONE
If ever there is a bad time to break your ankle, then it’s as you enter the final year of your contract the year a new manager finally arrives at the club.
It’s not like Welbeck can point to his Arsenal history to save himself.
Two serious knee injuries dominate his CV more than the 32 goals, and 15 assists, in 126 appearances since he moved from Old Trafford for £18m.
Carl Jenkinson GONE
It will be a pub quiz question in years to come – who was the last remaining British core player at Arsenal?
How this has happened is anyone’s guess but it’s hard to see Jenkinson still being at the club when the window finally closes in the summer.
Another whose contract is up at the end of this season, sadly, Jenks’ passion and love for Arsenal are just not enough to earn him a new deal.
Denis Suarez GONE
Although it’s still very early days for Suarez at Arsenal, I don’t think the club have much intention of buying him permanently. Why push to have only an option in his loan agreement if they were desperate to get him long-term?
That being said, Suarez still has plenty of games to impress in between now and the end of the season to earn a move.
David Ospina GONE
There was a brief moment last week when it seemed like Napoli were going to back out of any deal to buy Ospina but, thankfully, Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed the Colombian will remain in Italy.
Calum Chambers
Chambers has been playing well with Fulham, as much as anyone has with the Cottagers, at least.
Rumours surfaced recently that the club would be open to selling him in the summer should somebody meet his valuation and it’s hard to think that won’t happen.
He’s another about to enter the final two years of his contract and Raul Sanllehi has already made it clear there will be no more last-year nonsense that dogged the club when Ivan Gazidis and Dick Law were dealing with renewals.
Arsenal, therefore, have a decision – sell or re-sign. It seems very unlikely they will do the latter.
A fee of around £18m – the amount Arsenal paid for him – will see him leave.
Takuma Asano GONE
Arsenal spent £3.6m on Asano in 2016 and has spent the time since in Germany.
If the club were hoping two spells in the Bundesliga would get him up to speed for the Premier League then they are likely feeling very disappointed. Well, they would be if anyone involved in signing him was still at the club.
Asano has 12 appearances for Hannover this season, totalling 671 minutes. That’s fewer than half Mesut Ozil’s minutes, to put it into perspective. 10 were in the Bundesliga and two in the cup with one goal and one assist to his name.
Injuries have disrupted his season but it’s hard to see how he has a future at Arsenal.
He will have one year left on his Arsenal contract when he returns in the summer.
Mesut Ozil
There are many who believe Mesut Ozil won’t be at the club next season but I’m not so sure.
For a start, there’s the small matter of his obscene wages that nobody else is going to match, especially not if they also have to pay a transfer fee for him.
Shkodran Mustafi
Not long after Arsenal signed Shkodran Mustafi, Gary Neville reportedly said that Valencia couldn’t give the defender away before the Gunners arrived with an offer of £36.9m that no rational human could refuse.
While he’s had his moments, most of them have been bad and with just two years left on his deal the club have to look at selling or renewing.
They won’t make their money back but, similarly, freeing up his £90kpw wages would allow us to sign a player that knows how to defend.
Mohamed Elneny
A decent, 7-out-of-10 player, Elneny has never done anything spectacularly good or bad since he arrived at the start of 2016 for £11.25m.
His current contract runs until 2022 after he was handed a new deal by the club a month before Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving.
Since Emery arrived, Elneny has played just 745 minutes and you have to think the Spaniard is eyeing up another player for Elneny’s £55kpw wages.