Arsene Wenger must axe these 3 Arsenal players in January

The Premier League may only be a few months old, but already rumours and speculation are building ahead of the reopening of the transfer window in January.

This fortnight’s international break provides Premier League managers with time to reflect on the opening months of the season, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of their squads.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger may be one of those managers analysing his squad to see what players have a future at the Emirates.

The Gunners have made a good start to the new season, despite losing their opening game against Liverpool. Since then, they’ve picked up five wins to sit third in the league, behind only Tottenham and Manchester City.

However, Wenger may feel that it’s time to move some Arsenal players on, so here are THREE players the Frenchman may look to sell in January…

Mathieu Debuchy

The French full-back moved to North London in 2014 for £12m and, in the early stages of his Arsenal career, he looked like a decent signing, both defensively and offensively.

However, Debuchy struggled to make the right-back position his own and eventually lost out to the rapidly-improving Hector Bellerin, who hasn’t put a foot wrong since.

A loan spell at Bordeaux earlier this year signalled the end of his time at Arsenal, and the French international tried to force a move away from the club during the summer, but to no avail.

Now though, it must be time to move Debuchy on – he’s clearly a surplus to requirements at the club, and it would be in both party’s best interests to sell the Frenchman on in January.

Yaya Sanogo

A few loan spells in recent years has been about as good as it gets for Yaya Sanogo since his first-ever Gunners goal against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League.

That goal in 2014 appeared to give Wenger another forward option, but Sanogo has played just once for Arsenal since then, suggesting that he has no immediate future at the club.

At 23 years of age, time is still on his side, but he hasn’t had fruitful loan spells at Crystal Palace, Ajax, and Charlton Athletic since then, netting a combined four times in 23 appearances for those three sides respectively.

Staying at Arsenal is not going to help Sanogo develop but, based on previous loan spells, a temporary move away may not either. Maybe it’s time to leave the Gunners for good.

Kieran Gibbs

This may be more a decision made by Kieran Gibbs than Arsenal themselves, but the full-back should seriously consider where his career is going at Arsenal.

He has lost his first-team place to Nacho Monreal in recent times – Gibbs’ only start of this season came in their 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the EFL Cup and, last season, he only made 15 league appearances. He’s slowly being phased out of the first-team picture.

The 27-year-old has also had a couple of substitute cameos this year but, if he still harbours ambitions of adding to his 10 England caps, he needs to be playing first-team football, especially given the talented youngsters England have in that position.

It’s a difficult one for Gibbs; he knows that an injury to Monreal will give him a chance but, at the age of 27, I’m not sure he can wait for those opportunities. It could be time for a change.