COLD ART TRUTH: Arsenal's champion squad will leave Mikel Arteta having to digest harsh reality after sealing £75m Bruno Guimaraes transfer

Arsenal finally got their man on Saturday as they paraded the £75million signing of Bruno Guimaraes - adding more quality to an already champion side.

Mikel Arteta is certainly making sure he doesn't rest on his laurels and Arsenal are striking whilst the knife is hot. They've already spent north of £100million on their squad as they seek to remain top of the pile ahead of the new season kicking off.

Arsenal have very much been a coming force in recent years. The only question mark over them becoming champions and ending their Premier League drought was a mental one. The quality they had assembled over the years meant winning silverware was looking a matter of when, not if.

The building of such a team saw renowned Gunners fan Piers Morgan claim that they had assembled the greatest squad in the history of world football. His bold statement wasn't met with widespread agreement, but it serves to underline just how impressive the group they've assembled is.

Arsenal can certainly ride this wave, which they inevitably will in the 12 months after becoming champions. They're favourites to retain their crown, and becoming back-to-back champions would give them even more pull, but players fundamentally want to play.

This star-studded squad they now boast began being properly assembled in the summer of 2021, just before they started mixing it in the European picture after several below par years. They signed the likes of Ben White and Martin Odegaard and every summer since they added serious quality, breaking their club-record fee along the way.

Their team, and its depth, now is akin to the squad Jose Mourinho's Chelsea had in the early Roman Abramovich days, or the quality Pep Guardiola could boast in his Manchester City heyday.

Those two elite managers eventually had to stomach letting players depart whom they will have wanted to keep, but there's only so many starting spots available each week. Mourinho had to let the likes of Arjen Robben, Tiago, Scott Parker and Glen Johnson leave - all of whom enjoyed impressive spells post-Chelsea.

Guardiola waved off Julian Alvarez, Cole Palmer and Ferran Torres. The overriding reason every time was that the player simply didn't want to settle for a squad role.

Arteta spoke about enlarging the bench numbers back in January as he addressed the difficulty of constantly leaving summer signing Christian Norgaard out of his match squads. It did came across with an element of self loathing - I'm sure Arteta, with the riches available to him, wanted to have a host of £50m signings to change the game from the bench.

Shame, not every club can have a squad so luxurious, and so limiting the bench numbers serves as some kind of an equaliser. Equally don't sign a player, that was only ever signed as cover, and they bemoan his lack of involvement.

"At the moment there are two or three players who have to be out of the squad. That's a reality and I cannot change that." he said earlier this year. "These are the rules. Hopefully the Premier League next season instead of 18 outfield players they will do 20.

"I beg them from here, [have it] like it is in the Champions League, because it's much better to manage the squad, to maintain the value of the players, to maintain the mental health of the players as nobody wants to get out of the squad. I beg them to help us with that. We can deal with hotels, travel and all of that. That would be very, very helpful for all of us. The worst thing is to leave somebody."

Rather than giving Arsenal the scope to have a bigger bench, the reality is Arteta is going to have to decide who he is going to hang his hat on, and who he can afford to lose. Certain players may take that out of his hand if they seek to take greater control of their career.

You only need to look at the numbers. A graphic showing Arsenal's depth will highlight that the Gunners have close to three players for every midfield and attacking position.

Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Martin Odegaard and now Guimaraes all want a midfield spot. Arsenal play two wingers every game - and Arteta needs to pick from Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze. They've just added Christos Tzolis and remain in the market for another blockbuster name after missing out on Vinicius Junior. This is before accounting for academy stars Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Max Dowman.

There's no doubt Arsenal have a squad that nearly every club in Europe would envy, but such depth has a short lifespan. Guardiola constantly spoke about needing to streamline his squad because players who don't play become unhappy, and that impacts on the environment. This is a reality Arteta may have to face sooner rather than later.

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