Somewhere inside Arsenal’s payroll sits a gap that says everything about this club right now, because while 16 year old Max Dowman earns £300 a week on his academy scholarship, Bukayo Saka collects exactly one thousand times that figure for the same seven days of work, and the distance between those two numbers is basically the entire story of Arsenal’s 2026/27 wage bill.
You could spend an afternoon scrolling through spreadsheets from Capology or SalaryLeaks trying to piece this picture together yourself, jumping between currencies and half updated transfer trackers, or you could just look at the full breakdown below and see exactly what every player from Saka down to the newest scholar actually takes home this season.
12 months ago nobody would have guessed Arsenal’s total wage bill would climb past £227 million including bonuses, landing the club third highest in the entire Premier League behind only Manchester City and Chelsea, yet here you are staring at a payroll built to defend the title Arteta’s side finally delivered last May, ending a 22 year wait that had followed the club around like a shadow since the Invincibles.
Every name on this list tells you something about how seriously this club now takes the business of winning.
Why This Wage Bill Looks Different From Last Season
You have to go back to the January 2026 window to find the moment that reshaped everything, because that was when Bukayo Saka signed the contract extension that turned him into the highest earner at the Emirates on £300,000 a week, a deal built specifically to keep Europe’s biggest clubs from even bothering to make an approach, and it arrived just months before Saka lifted the Premier League trophy at Selhurst Park as Arsenal secured their fourth top flight title and first since 2004.
That renewal alone pushed the wage structure at Arsenal into new territory, and it arrived alongside a summer transfer window in which the club spent more than £260 million bringing in Viktor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Martín Zubimendi and several others, each of whom arrived with salary demands that reflected their standing in the market rather than Arsenal’s old reputation for negotiating hard on wages.
Revenue growth has made this spending easier to justify internally, since the club’s turnover has climbed from roughly £616 million to around £691 million over the past year, which means the wage-to-turnover ratio has actually improved even as the raw number has gone up, sitting closer to 50% rather than the 53 % fans were quoted a season earlier.
SEE ALSO | Chelsea Wage Bill 2026/27: All Player Salaries
The Full Breakdown, Player by Player
Current as of the end of August 2026 and reflecting base salaries, guaranteed contract earnings, and publicly disclosed bonus structures where those figures have been confirmed through reliable reporting.
| # | Player | Weekly | Annual | Bonus | Age | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bukayo Saka | £300,000 | £15.6M | +£3.9M | 25 | 2030 |
| 2 | Kai Havertz | £275,000 | £14.2M | +£3.9M | 27 | 2028 |
| 3 | Bruno Guimarães | £250,000 | £13M | +£2.6M | 28 | 2031 |
| 4 | Declan Rice | £250,000 | £13M | +£2.6M | 27 | 2028 |
| 5 | William Saliba | £250,000 | £13M | +£2.6M | 25 | 2030 |
| 6 | Martin Ødegaard | £220,000 | £11.4M | +£2.6M | 27 | 2028 |
| 7 | Gabriel Magalhães | £200,000 | £10.4M | +£3.9M | 28 | 2029 |
| 8 | Viktor Gyökeres | £200,000 | £10.4M | +£3.9M | 28 | 2030 |
| 9 | Eberechi Eze | £175,000 | £9.1M | +£2.6M | 28 | 2030 |
| 10 | Ezri Konsa | £150,000 | £7.8M | +£1.3M | 28 | 2030 |
| 11 | Ben White | £150,000 | £7.8M | +£2.6M | 28 | 2028 |
| 12 | David Raya | £120,000 | £6.2M | +£1.8M | 30 | 2028 |
| 13 | Mikel Merino | £105,000 | £5.5M | +£1.8M | 30 | 2028 |
| 14 | Riccardo Calafiori | £105,000 | £5.5M | +£1.8M | 24 | 2029 |
| 15 | Piero Hincapié | £100,000 | £5.2M | +£1.8M | 24 | 2029 |
| 16 | Martín Zubimendi | £100,000 | £5.2M | +£1.8M | 27 | 2030 |
| 17 | Noni Madueke | £100,000 | £5.2M | +£1.8M | 24 | 2030 |
| 18 | Jurrien Timber | £90,000 | £4.7M | +£1.5M | 25 | 2028 |
| 19 | Kepa Arrizabalaga | £75,000 | £3.9M | +£1.2M | 31 | 2028 |
| 20 | Cristhian Mosquera | £70,000 | £3.6M | +£436,800 | 22 | 2030 |
| 21 | Christos Tzolis | £60,000 | £3.1M | +£1M | 24 | 2031 |
| 22 | Illan Meslier | £40,000 | £2.3M | +£250,000 | 26 | 2028 |
| 23 | Myles Lewis-Skelly | £40,000 | £2.1M | +£312,000 | 19 | 2030 |
| 24 | Tommy Setford | £10,000 | £520,000 | — | 20 | 2028 |
| 25 | Andre Annous | £1,000 | £52,000 | +£6,240 | 18 | 2028 |
| 26 | Jack Porter | £1,000 | £52,000 | +£25,000 | 18 | 2028 |
| 27 | Max Dowman | £300 | £18,200 | +£104,000 | 16 | 2027 |
| Total | £3,437,300 | £178.9M | £48.1M |
Who’s Carrying the Payroll
Saka sitting at the very top makes sense once you remember what he produced at the World Cup, where a hat trick against France in the third place playoff reminded everyone exactly why Arsenal moved so quickly to tie him down before a European giant could test his resolve.
Havertz remains the second highest earner on £275,000 a week, a number that raised eyebrows when he first arrived from Chelsea but now looks entirely reasonable given how central he has become to Arteta’s pressing structure and his habit of scoring in the biggest matches.
Bruno Guimarães joining the squad on £250,000 a week alongside Declan Rice and William Saliba means Arsenal now carries three players at that exact figure, and each of them anchors a different part of the pitch, which tells you the club has deliberately built its spine around players it considers close to untouchable.
Gyökeres arriving on £200,000 a week after his £69 million move from Sporting CP represents the clearest signal yet that Arsenal finally solved the centre forward problem that cost them the title in previous campaigns, and his goal contributions did help Arsenal in their quest for chasing the title.
Eze, brought in for £67.5 million after Arsenal reportedly hijacked a deal that once looked destined for Tottenham, sits on £175,000 a week and has repaid that faith almost immediately with a debut season goal against his old rivals.
SEE ALSO | Every Premier League Club’s Wage Bill for 2026/27
The Middle Tier and the Value Signings
Further down the list you find players like Zubimendi, Madueke and Merino all earning around the £100,000 to £105,000 mark, wages that look almost restrained next to the top earners but still place every one of them among the better paid midfielders and wingers anywhere in English football.
Zubimendi’s arrival from Real Sociedad for a club record fee at the time has already paid off on the pitch, and has quickly become one of the more reliable presences in front of the back four.
Cristhian Mosquera, signed from Valencia for £13 million, sits on a comparatively modest £70,000 a week, a nudge that Arsenal’s recruitment strategy still leaves room for younger players who arrive on sensible terms rather than commanding elite money from day one.
The Academy Graduates Changing the Numbers From Below
What makes this list genuinely interesting is how it stretches all the way down to teenagers still working their way through the academy pathway.
Myles Lewis-Skelly, only 19 and already a regular fixture in Arteta’s matchday squad, earns £40,000 a week on a deal that runs until 2030, which shows how quickly the club moved to protect one of its most promising academy products once his performances made it clear he belonged at first team level.
Tommy Setford, the young goalkeeper behind Raya and Kepa in the pecking order, sits on £10,000 a week, while Andre Annous and Jack Porter both earn £1,000 weekly as they continue developing through the club’s youth setup.
Max Dowman remains the outlier of the entire squad, still on a scholarship level contract worth £300 a week given his age, though he has already signed terms that will convert into a full professional deal once he becomes eligible, a structure that reflects how carefully clubs now protect their most talked about young prospects from a regulatory standpoint before they can officially turn pro.
SEE ALSO |
How Arsenal Stacks Up Against the Rest of the League
At roughly £227 million including bonuses, Arsenal’s total outlay on wages ranks third in the Premier League behind Manchester City and Chelsea, a considerable jump from where the club sat only two or three seasons ago when cost control was still the dominant theme around the Emirates.
That climb has not come at the expense of financial stability either, since the improved revenue picture means Arsenal’s wage to turnover ratio has actually trended in a healthier direction even as the raw spending has grown, giving the club room to negotiate future contracts without triggering the kind of Profit and Sustainability Rules concerns that have hampered other top flight sides.
How These Figures Are Compiled: A Step by Step Look
- Start with confirmed base salaries. Every figure begins with the fixed weekly wage written into a player’s contract, sourced from reporting across outlets that specialise in football finance, including established databases and direct newspaper reporting on contract terms.
- Layer in guaranteed annual earnings. The weekly number gets multiplied out across the year, then cross referenced against separately reported annual figures to catch any discrepancy between the two.
- Add disclosed bonus structures. Where credible outlets have confirmed performance related add ons, whether tied to appearances, goals, or team trophies, those figures get included separately rather than folded into the base number, since bonuses are conditional rather than guaranteed.
- Check contract length against official announcements. Every expiry date gets verified against the club’s own announcements or reliable transfer reporting, since agents and clubs sometimes negotiate option years that only become public well after a deal closes.
- Cross reference against multiple salary trackers. Because no single outlet has access to every contract, the final figures represent an estimate built from triangulating several independent sources rather than relying on one report alone.
- Update as news breaks. Contract renewals, loan bonuses, and release clause adjustments get folded in as they are confirmed, which is why a wage bill snapshot from January looks noticeably different from one taken in late August.
