Arsenal stars William Saliba and Declan Rice react after Gabriel wins Premier League award

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Although Arsenal would like to add one or two more signings before Deadline Day next week, Mikel Arteta’s side are in a very strong position right now.

Arsenal want to sign Mikel Merino as soon as possible, before then offloading the likes of Eddie Nketiah and Aaron Ramsdale and exploring further deals elsewhere.

There’s a lot of moving pieces for the Gunners, but evidently the opportunity for improvement does exist.

That being said, this week and last weekend have been more geared towards celebrating Arsenal’s existing talent.

Alan Shearer hailed Bukayo Saka for his performance against Wolverhampton Wanderers on the weekend, starting the new season as he finished last.

And at the PFA awards on Tuesday evening, five of Arsenal’s stars made the Premier League team of Year.

David Raya, Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard were all awarded with a place in the team.

And given that Arsenal only had four names on the list the season prior, the selection did mirror the further progress that the Gunners have made.

Gabriel Magalhaes wins his first PFA Team of the Year award at Arsenal

One of the additions from last season’s selection was Gabriel, who now lined up alongside his centre-back partner, Saliba.

Unfortunately, both Aaron Ramsdale and Saka dropped out from the season before, but Raya, Rice and Odegaard were added in their place.

READ MORE: Wolves could use ‘outstanding’ player in swap deal to bring in Aaron Ramsdale from Arsenal

It’s a considerable win for Gabriel in particular, considering he looked like he may have lost his place in Arteta’s starting eleven at the start of the 2023/24 season.

Gabriel was benched amid talk of a move to Saudi Arabia, but we’ll never truly know whether he was left out on that basis or if it was strictly a tactical call.

That being said, after winning the PFA award after an excellent season, the £27m-defender took to Instagram to celebrate, where he was commended by several of his teammates.

All of Rice, Saliba, Odegaard and Zinchenko left messages of support, evidently elated to see the Brazilian defender recognised for his brilliant campaign.

Of course, Riccardo Calafiori’s arrival will be in part intended to keep Gabriel on his toes at left centre-back, even if the Italian may often line up as a full-back too.

But in order to win the Premier League, Arsenal still need to make one key signing.