Arsenal column: Reaction to 2025/26 fixtures, Nico Williams & Rodrygo latest, plus potential free transfer

Thoughts on Arsenal’s Premier League fixture list

Well, you don’t get much tougher starts to a new Premier League season than the one Arsenal have been handed for the 2025/26 campaign.

I know the old cliche that ‘everyone has to play each other twice’, but even so, I think it’s pretty obvious that if you could choose your start to a season you would not opt for the one that Arsenal now have facing them.

To have United, Liverpool and Newcastle as your first three away games is far from ideal, especially with home fixtures against Leeds, Forest and City sandwiched in-between.

IN FULL: ARSENAL 2025/26 PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURE LIST

But one thing these fixtures should do is focus Arsenal’s attention even more when it comes to the transfer market. The club needs to make sure they are ready to go as soon as the new season gets underway.

The new signings need to be in early so they can adapt and adjust through pre-season and be ready to hit the ground running in the early weeks of the campaign.

Arsenal and Mikel Arteta need to be able to just focus on the games, rather than having to worry about scrambling around in the last few weeks of the window looking for additions.

It’s incredibly tough to stay in a title race in the Premier League, as Arsenal know only too well.

And if you are caught going into a season under-prepared you will quickly get found out and Arsenal can’t afford for that to happen, especially having been handed such a brutal start to the campaign.

Nico Williams looks to be out of the picture for Arsenal

There’s obviously lots of chat about Nico Williams at the moment given it appears that he has told all the clubs that are interested in him that he would prefer a move to Barcelona, should he end up leaving Bilbao this summer.

That will be a blow to Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, who have held a strong interest in Williams for well over a year now.

They tried to get him last summer, but were told he wanted to stay in Spain, and that interest remained this summer as well.

I’ve seen reports that Arsenal had gone as far as offering Williams a contract. I’m not sure that is the case.

Of course his agent would have been made aware of what sort of money would have been on offer had Williams been interested in a move to London, but that would have been as far as things had got.

It is a shame that it does not look like he will be coming to Arsenal because I would have loved to have seen him in the Premier League.

He’s still pretty raw, but he clearly has the potential to become something very special and it would have been interesting to see what he could have become under Arteta.

It would have been an exciting signing. The type of arrival that would have generated a real buzz around the club.

But there are other exciting left wingers out there, so as long as Arsenal go out and get a deal done for someone who will really strengthen their options out wide then it’s far from the end of the world.

Rodrygo could be the ideal winger signing for Arsenal

Rodrygo would be my pick as the new left winger, with Williams now seemingly out of the picture.

We know there is interest there from Arsenal, but that one does feel like something that could run deep into the window.

It’s not yet clear whether Rodrygo will be available. The  expectation is that a final decision will be taken after Real Madrid’s stay at the Club World Cup.

So a lot depends on whether Arsenal would be willing to wait to see if a deal could even be possible for the Brazilian.

Another name that has been suggested is Anthony Gordon at Newcastle.

Mikel Arteta does love to sign players with Premier League experience. We’ve seen that with the likes of Ben White, Leandro Trossard, Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jorginho.

So it wouldn’t be a shock if Arsenal tested the waters for someone like Gordon. I think he’s a player who could come in and make a big and immediate impact at the Emirates.

Whether Newcastle would be willing to let him go, however, would be another thing.

It would probably be an incredibly difficult deal to do, especially with Newcastle having qualified for the Champions League.

Arsenal left-back could leave on a free transfer

I still think Riccardo Calafiori will have a big role to play for Arsenal next season, even with the emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly.

I’ve seen suggestions of a potential exit this summer, with AC Milan pushing for him, but I can’t see it myself. I think he’s got so much to offer and we only scratched the surface with him last season in terms of what he can bring.

Obviously he needs to stay fit first and foremost, something he couldn’t do last season. But if he can do that then I think we’ll see a lot of him.

He’s a really interesting player and when he has been fit he’s shown what he can offer. He brings a bit of chaos when he’s on the pitch and this Arsenal squad needs a bit of that.

Lewis-Skelly is clearly first choice left-back now, but that doesn’t mean Calafiori won’t play. I think he’ll get plenty of minutes if he stays injury free and Arteta will really rotate between the two.

So even if Milan do make an offer, it would have to be a massive one to tempt Arsenal into doing business and I can’t see them doing that.

It’s a different story with Oleksandr Zinchenko. He is a player Arsenal are open to selling and the word from Italy is that Milan’s interest in him is serious.

Wages could be an issue there, however.

I’m not sure Zinchenko will be in a rush to leave. He has a year left on his deal and he’s getting money at Arsenal that I don’t see him getting elsewhere, especially in Italy.

So it wouldn’t surprise me if he stays and sees out his contract before assessing his options as a free agent this time next year.

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