Arsenal still need to sell or loan a few more players to fit under the squad restrictions for the Premier League and in Europe.

As we enter the final few weeks of the transfer window, Arsenal fans are still hoping for one or two more additions to Mikel Arteta’s squad.

But even before adding anyone new, the current squad is already slightly overstocked. Let’s take a look at how Arsenal’s squad fits under the current Premier League and UEFA restrictions.

Premier League

The Premier League allow you to have a maximum of 17 non-homegrown senior players in the squad, with the total number of senior players adding up to no more than 25.

You can allocate the homegrown players however you want within those restrictions. For example, you could have 17 non-homegrown and 8 homegrown, or 10 non-HG and 15 HG, or 17 non-HG and zero HG.

As long as the total is 25 or under, and the total of non-homegrown players is 17 or under, there are no issues. There’s no minimum number of homegrown players required, only a maximum on the non-homegrown players.

The other thing to mention is the u21 list. If a player is under-21 (which is specifically defined as being born on or after 1st January 2001, for this season), then they don’t have to be named in the senior squad. You can have as many under-21s as you want.

With all that in mind, let’s take a look at how Arsenal’s squad breaks down.

Homegrown players (10): Bellerin, Holding, Nketiah, Ramsdale, White, Maitland-Niles, Smith Rowe, Nelson, M. Smith, Olayinka

Non-Homegrown (17): Runarsson, Turner, Tierney, Gabriel, Cedric, Tomiyasu, Mari, Zinchenko, Partey, Odegaard, Vieira, Lokonga, Elneny, Xhaka, Jesus, Pepe, Lewis

Under-21s: Saliba, Saka, Martinelli, Hein, Marquinhos, Sousa, Walters, and the rest of the academy

As you can see, even with Lucas Torreira excluded – as he closes in on a move to Galatasaray – Arsenal are still two players over the limit.

The good news is that they’re not over the non-homegrown limit, so they could take two players out of either category (homegrown or non-homegrown), meaning any departures will help.

With Bellerin and Mari strongly linked with moves, that could be enough. But if Arsenal make any signings, they’d have to make further sales or loans.

Unfortunately, the situation is worse in the Europa League.

UEFA (Europa League)

For the most part, the same rules apply in UEFA competitions. The squad limit is 25, the non-homegrown limit is 17, and “u21” means born after 1st January 2001.

But UEFA add two extra restrictions to complicate matters.

The first is that only four of your homegrown players can be trained at other clubs, the rest must be trained with your own. For Arsenal, that’s not yet an issue, as only Holding, Ramsdale, and White were trained elsewhere.

The second restriction is that under-21 players must have been at your club for two years. If they haven’t (for example, Marquinhos, who signed this summer), then they have to go in the senior squad list.

This means Marquinhos, Lino Sousa, and Reuell Walters can’t go on the u21 list this season.

Joel Ideho is also ineligible until October 6th, as he joined on October 6th, 2020, which would rule him out of the list for Arsenal’s first two group games.

Kaleel Green and Henry Timi Davies are also technically ineligible, but neither of them are anywhere close to the first team yet anyway.

What this means is that Arsenal need to cut down their current 27-man squad to 22, if they want to include Marquinhos, Sousa, and Walters in the Europa League group stage, which would be an excellent experience for all three of them.

All three youngsters would need to be named as non-homegrown players.

Summary

If Arsenal want to include Marquinhos, Sousa, and Walters in the Europa League group stage, as well as making at least one more summer signing, they need to sell or loan a minimum of six players before deadline day.

At least three sales need to be non-homegrown players, and if Arsenal’s new signing is a non-homegrown player, then at least four sales need to be non-homegrown.

Runarsson, Mari, and Lewis look like easy targets, but after that, it’s not so straightforward.

If they fail to make those sales, Arsenal will have to keep some players at the club without being able to register them for matches.