Arsenal can make ‘huge statement of intent’ with £110k-a-week trio at Emirates

Arsenal could send out a ‘huge statement of intent’ by securing their brightest stars to new contracts over the coming months, according to journalist Paul Brown.

Key assets Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba are all out of contract in the summer of 2024, meaning they are approaching a crossroads in their careers.

Football.London recently reported that Arsenal have a ‘club option’ of an extra year on Saliba and Saka’s deals and an extra two years on the contract of Martinelli.

However, Mikel Arteta alluded to the fact that work is already going on behind the scenes to tie the trio down to fresh terms in his pre-match press conference ahead of Bodo/Glimt.

“We have to plan for the future,” admitted the Spanish tactician. “We are all working on it.

“Obviously, Edu and all the board is on top of it, and we will try to do things in the right way, being fair and trying to plan the best possible way to reward the players that, in our opinion, have a big future for the club.”

Martinelli, Saka and Saliba, who earn a combined £110,000-per-week, have all excelled under Arteta in the opening weeks of 2022/23 and have been pivotal to their early season form.

Brown believes that if the aforementioned trio commit their futures to Arsenal, then it would be a show of faith ‘in the manager and the project’ at the Emirates Stadium.

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In an interview with GiveMeSport, he said: “I think if they were able to get all of those guys on long-term contracts and secured, it will be a huge statement of intent.

“And it would show that those players really believe in the manager and the project; there’s no reason to think that