Arsenal spent big in the summer of 2025 with a total amount of nearly 200 million pounds. However, when it comes to revenue - a necessary factor to balance the squad, budget and pave the way for new contracts - the "Gunners" have fallen behind their opponents.
That is also the reason Tottenham can comfortably spend £60 million to recruit Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace at the moment.
Arsenal have so far earned just around £6.9m from selling Marquinhos to Cruzeiro £2.6m and Nuno Tavares to Lazio £4.3m.
Meanwhile, Thomas Partey, Jorginho, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney all left on free transfers. Only Leeds (6.5 million pounds), Everton (3.4 million pounds), along with Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Fulham (0 points) are behind Arsenal in terms of revenue.
The difference compared to the Premier League championship competitors is very clear. Liverpool have earned £188.5 million from stars like Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez. Chelsea pocketed £205.7 million thanks to Noni Madueke and Joao Felix.
Man City also reached £55.7 million after selling James McAtee. Even Nottingham Forest (102.1 million), Bournemouth (197.5 million), Brighton (104.7 million), Wolves (98.7 million) and Brentford (83.8 million) have all had "money-taking" deals.
Arsenal have long had difficulty selling players. Their transfer record is still the 2017 £35 million sale of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool, before that of Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid in 1999.
In recent years, The Gunners have improved somewhat with the sale of Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith Rowe in the summer of 2024, earning about 89 million pounds. Or the Folarin Balogun deal to Monaco in 2023 with a fee that could be up to 35 million pounds. But this is still a weakness that needs to be overcome.
In the coming weeks, Arsenal's revenue could improve if they sell names like Fabio Vieira, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard, Jakub Kiwior, Albert Sambi Lokonga or Reiss Nelson - with a total estimated market value of more than 100 million pounds.
In fact, when he first took over the "Gunners" at the end of 2019, coach Mikel Arteta inherited a bulky squad with many old, high-paid stars.
Therefore, Arsenal was forced to accept cutting losses, liquidating contracts to rebuild, giving opportunities to the young generation such as Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun. This is in contrast to Liverpool, Man City or Chelsea - teams that often sell their "homegrown" talents for big profits.
Meanwhile, Man City sold Cole Palmer to Chelsea for 42.5 million pounds, while The Blues also earned about 230 million pounds from Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Conor Gallagher. Liverpool earned money from selling Raheem Sterling (50 million pounds), Ben Doak (25 million pounds) and Jarell Quansah (35 million pounds).
Mikel Arteta's squad is now more balanced and the bench is also deep. But to maintain competitiveness, Arsenal need to learn how to make the most of their "assets".
William Saliba is attracting Real Madrid, Gabriel is in the target market of Saudi Arabia, while young stars Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Max Dowman all increased their prices strongly.
In the journey to end a 21-year wait for the Premier League title, Arsenal are forced to improve their player sales ability. Otherwise, they will hardly be on par with Liverpool, Man City or Chelsea. These teams have all made the transfer market an important part of their success.
