Mikel Arteta has almost entirely reshaped the Arsenal squad he inherited when he took charge of the club, with only two players remaining from that original group.
The Spaniard arrived at the Emirates Stadium in December 2019, tasked with reviving a club that had fallen well short of its former standards in the Premier League.
Since then, Arteta has systematically moved on players who did not fit his vision, replacing them with signings that reflect his preferred style of play.
The scale of the overhaul is remarkable, with the vast majority of the squad Arteta first walked in to manage now gone from the club entirely.
It speaks to the level of trust Arsenal’s ownership and sporting hierarchy placed in Arteta that he was given the resources and time to carry out such a thorough rebuild.
The process was not always smooth, with Arsenal enduring difficult early seasons before the project began to bear fruit in more recent years.
A title challenge eventually materialised, with Arsenal emerging as genuine Premier League contenders and pushing Manchester City hard across consecutive seasons.
The recruitment work carried out by Arteta and his colleagues has been widely praised, with the club bringing in players who have become central to the team’s identity.
Only two players from the squad Arteta inherited have survived the transition and remained part of the first-team picture at Arsenal heading into 2026.
That fact alone underlines just how comprehensively the club has been transformed under Arteta’s management over the past six-plus years.
It represents one of the more significant squad rebuilds seen at a major English club in recent memory, carried out gradually but with clear purpose and direction throughout.
The two remaining players who were present when Arteta first arrived serve as the last link to a previous era that the club has largely moved on from.
Arsenal’s rise back into Champions League football and their sustained domestic challenge are testament to how effectively Arteta has executed his long-term plan.
