THE exit doors at the Emirates Stadium are seemingly ready to swing open with Mikel Arteta admitting the numbers in Arsenal’s first-team squad are “unsustainable”.

The Gunners took 29 players on their tour of the United States as Arteta ramps up his preparations for the new Premier League season. One of those players, Folarin Balogun, was reportedly spotted training alone this week amid ongoing speculation about his future at the club.

After watching Arsenal thump Barcelona 5-3 in the early hours of yesterday (Thursday) morning, the Gunners boss was quick to play down the reasons why the striker wasn’t involved in the game at LA’s SoFi Stadium.

“He wasn’t available. He had a little foot injury, and he hasn’t been training with us,” said the Spaniard.

But Gooners are not convinced that the excuse isn’t just a smokescreen. Balogun is attracting interest from a number of clubs following his successful loan spell at Ligue 1 side Reims last season.

Inter Milan and Crystal Palace are said to be among the clubs interested in signing the 22-year-old forward for in the region of £35million. And while that’s some way off Arsenal’s £50m valuation of the USA star, a deal could be looming sooner than expected as the north Londoners set out to balance their books.

Admitting that there’s still plenty of transfer activity ahead, Arteta said: “We have 30 players here which is unsustainable, and obviously the market is still open, and things can happen – but we are prepared.

“We are really happy with the squad we have at the moment – we obviously have improvements to make in terms of what we want to do in games, and we have to do that. Overall, I’m really pleased with the team.”

Arteta was no doubt still looking for those improvements even after watching his team put on a show against Barcelona.

Leandro Trossard was the standout player with two goals as the Gunners twice came from behind to seal an entertaining 5-3 victory. Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Fabio Vieira were also all on target in an all-out attacking performance.

Arteta seemed unfazed by whether the goals are shared around or scored by just one player as he revealed a gameplan that will excite the fans.

He said: “We have to score as many goals as possible. If we have somebody that can score 25, 30, 40 goals, then great. We have a lot of options up front and they’re going to have to compete between themselves to give me a hard time.”

Praising one of his frontmen who didn’t hit the target, Arteta added: “Gabby [Jesus] didn’t score but it’s the best Gabby that I’ve seen for months. Again, he gave that energy, that belief. He was creating a lot of chaos, a lot of good moments – he was making everybody better and I’m really pleased with that.”