Arsenal and Manchester United are taking different approaches to weeding out ballast from their teams.
Going back to five years ago, both clubs had to undergo open-heart surgery to keep any hope of finishing at the top of the Premier League.
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Arsenal had just finished fifth in the 2018/19 Premier League season under Unai Emery. Emery was sacked in November 2019 and replaced by former captain and current manager Mikel Arteta.
Meanwhile, Man United finished the season in sixth place under former star Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who replaced Jose Mourinho midway through the season.
The Norwegian stayed until November 2021, after which Michael Carrick and then Ralf Rangnick, both on an interim basis, came into action.
At the start of the 2022/23 season, Man United appointed then Ajax boss Erik ten Hag as their new manager. The Dutchman was given the task of rebuilding a squad that had been performing significantly below par for too long.
Arteta, of course, had almost three years more to rebuild the disappointing Gunners team he took over than Ten Hag had to get rid of Carrington’s baggage.
Yet when you compare Arteta’s first team with Ten Hag’s, the Gunners are much more unrecognisable than Man United’s after both clubs tried to solve their squad problems.
At the time of writing, only five players remain from the first-team squad that Arteta inherited from Emery: Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Kieran Tierney and Eddie Nketiah.
Emile Smith Rowe, who was already there when Arteta arrived, moved to Fulham this summer after not getting enough playing time at the Gunners.
It remains to be seen whether Tierney will leave the club, but the fact that the defender was completely left out of the squad for the pre-season match against Bayer Leverkusen suggests that his career at the Emirates is over.
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Former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Matteo Guendouzi and Konstantinos Mavropanos are just some of the names who were sacked during Arteta’s tenure.
And this brutal squad overhaul has seen the Gunners challenge for the Premier League title two years in a row, signing highly rated stars such as Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard and David Raya.
Meanwhile, The Pitch Prospect’s Micky Gray believes that Man United’s remaining “baggage” in the squad is a major concern heading into the new season.
This is despite the arrival of Leny Yoro (£52m) from Lille and Joshua Zirkzee (£36m) from Bologna. They also parted ways with Anthony Martial and Raphael Varane this summer.
Gray, The Pitch Prospect’s Manchester football correspondent, said: “I still find it worrying that they haven’t signed many players and the players they want to get rid of are basically still there.”
Even though new co-owner INEOS took over the club’s football department last season, Ten Hag’s very first eleven includes many names that are still at the club today.
And this despite the fact that the new co-owner INEOS has taken over the football division of the club.
Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot, Luke Shaw, Bruno Fernandes, Christian Eriksen, Fred, Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho made up the team. Only Fred has left.
Alejandro Garnacho, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Malacia and Tom Heaton were also on the bench and are still at the club.
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Although these players are not considered “dead weight,” the majority of them are linked with a possible departure.
This includes former captain Maguire, from whom Ten Hag took the captaincy in favor of Fernandes.
Gray continued, “They all talked about getting the job done as quickly as possible and getting the crew ready as quickly as possible.”
“Unfortunately, they did not succeed.”
Manchester United kick off their season this Saturday in the Community Shield against Manchester City, live on The Pitch Prospect.
Meanwhile, Arsenal will face Wolverhampton Wanderers in their first Premier League game on Saturday 17 August.