Arsenal came out of the summer window with a thinner attack than they went into it. Gabriel Martinelli’s £60m move to Al-Hilal was wrapped up on Thursday 4 September, three days after Gabriel Jesus’s £8.6m deadline-day switch to Barcelona. Neither was directly replaced.

That is the backdrop to the reports emerging out of England in the past 48 hours. According to readArsenal on 15 September, the Gunners are “watching developments rather than actively negotiating” over Rio Ngumoha, and could revisit the idea if his minutes at Anfield shrink.

The teenager Liverpool will not sell

For Arsenal, there is a straightforward problem. Ngumoha is not going anywhere.

Liverpool reached an agreement in principle with the England youth international on a new long-term contract in early September, with journalist Graeme Bailey reporting the club is “rapidly accelerating” towards a formal announcement and that only “finer details now need to be ironed out”. The 18-year-old turned adult at the end of August, which lifts the three-year cap that England applies to contracts signed by minors and lets him commit for longer.

Read also: Aymeric Laporte exposes ugly side of Pep Guardiola relationship

Bayern Munich made their own inquiry earlier in the summer and got no traction, according to the same reporting. Ngumoha’s current basic salary is £25,000 per week and is set to be revised sharply upwards in the new deal.

Iraola’s four-man wing rotation

Andoni Iraola, who succeeded Arne Slot at Anfield in June, has already placed Ngumoha in a four-man rotation on the flanks alongside Bradley Barcola, Cody Gakpo and Victor Muñoz. That is not a fringe role at a club playing on four fronts, but it is not a guaranteed starter’s spot either.

Ngumoha started Liverpool’s Champions League 2-1 win over Atlético Madrid this month. He was left out of the club’s 25-man Premier League squad for 2026-27 but remains eligible as an under-21 player and can still feature in every match. In 2025-26 he made 29 senior appearances, mostly off the bench, and became Liverpool’s youngest-ever senior goalscorer at 16 years and 361 days with a 100th-minute winner at Newcastle.

The player himself has been direct about what he wants.

Read also: Manchester City face new panel that could reopen the 115-charge verdict

“I want to improve and implement myself as a starter sometimes,” Ngumoha told reporters this month.

Why the interest is being logged now

Arsenal’s summer alternatives to Martinelli and Jesus did not land. That leaves Mikel Arteta with Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard as the front-line wide options, and a scouting file open on any Premier League forward who might one day come loose.

Ngumoha ticks Arsenal’s usual boxes. English, 18, already at Champions League level, and the sort of profile the club has repeatedly moved for early. He is also, for now, out of reach.

Liverpool are expected to confirm Ngumoha’s new contract within weeks, according to the reports out of Anfield.

Read also: UK Tax-service (HMRC) is coming after Manchester City now

Read also: The huge job Jose Mourinho rejected for Real Madrid – and why it could already haunt him