Premier League: Arsenal in good financial health after ditching flops

Arsenal may have failed to offload Mesut Ozil in the summer but nonetheless the Gunners have trimmed a whopping £48m from their wage bill.

According to The Sun, Arsenal’s savage summer clear-out has streamlined their salary outlay by “more than £1m-a-week in wages”.

That was why the north London club - contrary to rumours in June that their transfer war chest was a paltry £45m - were able to go on a summer spending spree.

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Easy money

As Nicolas Pepe arrived in a record £72m deal - along with David Luiz (£8m), William Saliba (£27m), Kieran Tierney (£25m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£5m) - Arsenal boss Unai Emery also showed the door to 16 players, most of whom had been pocketing big money for little in return.

Third-choice goalkeeper David Ospina, for example, was on £40,000-a-week despite rarely being seen between the sticks, while perennially-injured striker Danny Welbeck was boosting his bank balance by £125,000 each week.

Remarkably, Stephan Lichtsteiner - a defensive liability even by Arsenal standards - was earning £75,000-a-week, while Carl Jenkinson was on £45,000, although he rarely even made the subs’ bench.

But perhaps the best bit of business by Arsenal was achieved on Monday when they got shot of the under-performing Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian had been costing the Gunners £180,000-a week but he’s Roma’s problem now - at least until June - after sealing a loan move to Italy.

Sanchez shocker

The Daily Mirror reports that Mkhitaryan cost Arsenal £15.1m in wages in the 16 months he was with the club. But at least the Gunners can console themselves with the fact that if they blew a big sum, it’s nothing to what Manchester United continue to haemorrhage on account of Alexis Sanchez.

The Chilean striker left for United in January 2018 with Arsenal taking Mkhitaryan as a makeweight.

During his nightmare stint at Old Trafford Sanchez - who has now been loaned to Inter Milan - scored just three goals in 32 appearances. This works out to be a total cost of £24.9m.

While he may have been farmed out to Italy, Sanchez will have £300,000 of his £400,000-a-week wages paid by United, Metro reports.

And the Red Devils also face the prospect of seeing the South American flop return to Old Trafford next summer because the loan move does not include an obligation for Inter to buy.