Arteta’s transfer spending tops £1BILLION after Eze deal

ARSENAL'S £67.5million acquisition of Eberechi Eze is set to take Mikel Arteta's transfer spending north of £1BILLION.

The Gunners hijacked Tottenham's swoop for Eze after Thomas Frank's side had struck a deal with Crystal Palace.

Eze, 27, will undergo a medical at London Colney on Friday after featuring for Palace against Fredrikstad in the Conference League tonight.

Arsenal have splashed the cash once again this summer, forking out around £270m on Martin Zubimendi, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Christian Norgaard, Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera and Eze.

Since arriving in December 2019, Arteta has been allowed to fork out plenty of money in order to reshape his squad.

The imminent arrival of Eze takes the Spaniard boss' transfer expenditure to around £1.097bn, with a staggering net spend of approximately £750m.

For context, Pep Guardiola's mega-rich Manchester City have spent around £972m on transfers over the same period - with a net spend of just £220m due to several big-money sales.

While the Gunners have struggled to flog players for big transfer fees, City are a well oiled machine in this regard.

Guardiola's men have made plenty of high-profile sales, including the likes of Leroy Sane to Bayern Munich, Cole Palmer to Chelsea and Riyad Mahrez to the Saudi Pro League, but it is some of the less splashy deals that consistently help them balance the books.

For example, City recently received around £25m from Borussia Dortmund for Yan Couto... despite the Brazilian having never actually played a game for them.

Of the Arsenal starting XI that was picked against Manchester United last weekend, only Bukayo Saka and William Saliba were not signed by Arteta.

But for every recruitment success story such as Gabriel Magalhaes and Declan Rice, there are some horrors.

For example, in 2022 the Gunners splashed around £34m on Fabio Vieira.

Arsenal are currently struggling to shift the Portuguese flop, after he endured an average season on loan at Porto in his homeland last time out.

The Gunners also spent £19.5m on Takehiro Tomiyasu, who has since had his contract terminated a year early, as well as £32m on fringe player Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Injury-plagued Gabriel Jesus cost £45m, while the Gunners also spent £17m on forgotten man Albert Sambi Lokonga in 2021.

City, meanwhile, landed Erling Haaland for a snip at £51.4m - but did splurge £100m on Jack Grealish and £45m on Kalvin Phillips.

Since Arteta left his Etihad Stadium post as Guardiola's No2 to rock up at Arsenal, Man City have won four Prem titles, an FA Cup, two League Cups and the Champions League.

Arsenal, meanwhile, have won a solitary FA Cup, back in 2020 behind closed doors due to Covid-19.

Remarkably, no player from the starting XI that day remains at the club - with Kieran Tierney the last man standing before moving on in the summer.

Of the matchday squad the last time the Gunners won a major trophy, only unused substitutes Saka and Reiss Nelson are still on the books.