Arsenal's brutal clean-up under Mikel Arteta has been laid bare and Erik ten Hag's Manchester United have not come any closer

Arsenal and Manchester United have gone in opposite directions when it comes to shedding dead weight from their squads.

Cast your mind back to this time five years ago: both clubs needed open-heart surgery to rekindle any hopes of challenging at the top of the Premier League again.

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Arsenal They had just finished fifth in the 2018/19 Premier League season under Unai Emery, who was then sacked in November 2019 and replaced by the former captain and current boss. Mikel Arteta.

Manchester United, meanwhile, finished the season in sixth place under former star Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who had arrived to replace Jose Mourinho midway through the campaign.

The Norwegian stayed until November 2021, and was later joined by Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick, both on a temporary basis.

For the start of the 2022/23 season, Manchester United have appointed the then Ajax manager Erik the Hag as their new coach, with the Dutchman tasked with rebuilding a team that had been severely underperforming for far too long.

Of course, Arteta has had almost three more years to recreate the disappointing Gunners team he inherited than Ten Hag has had to rid himself of the deadwood at Carrington.

But comparing Arteta's first team to Ten Hag's first, the Gunners look far more unrecognisable than Manchester United's after both clubs attempted to address their squad issues.

At the time of writing, just five players remain from the first-team squad Arteta inherited from Emery: Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Kieran Tierney and Eddie Nketiah.

Emile Smith Rowe, who was there when Arteta arrived, He moved to Fulham this summer after a lack of playing time with the Gunners.

It remains to be seen whether Tierney will leave, but the fact that the defender was… It was left out of the day's program The fact that he did not play in the pre-season clash against Bayer Leverkusen suggests his career at the Emirates is over.

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Former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Matteo Guendouzi and Konstantinos Mavropanos are just some of the names who were dropped during Arteta's reign.

And that brutal rebuilding of the team has seen the Gunners challenge for the Premier League title for two consecutive years, with the addition of highly-rated stars such as Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard and David Raya.

Meanwhile, talkSPORT's Micky Gray believes that Manchester United's 'dead weight''Staying in the team is a big concern for the new campaign.

That's even with the addition of Leny Yoro, who signed from Lille for £52m, and Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna, who cost £36m, plus the release of Anthony Martial and Raphael Varane this summer.

talkSPORT's Manchester football correspondent Gray said: “I still think it's worrying that they haven't made too many signings and the players they want out of the club are basically still there.”

Although new co-owners INEOS took over the footballing side of the club last season, Ten Hag's first XI includes many names who are still at the club today.

This is despite the fact that the new co-owners, INEOS, have taken over the footballing side of the club.

Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot, Luke Shaw, Bruno Fernandes, Christian Eriksen, Fred, Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho completed the squad. Only Fred withdrew.

Alejandro Garnacho, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Malacia and Tom Heaton were also on the bench and remain at the club.

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While not all of these players are dead weight, most of them have been linked with departures.

That includes former captain Maguire, who was stripped of the armband by Ten Hag in favour of Fernandes.

Gray continued: “Everyone talked about getting the job done as quickly as possible and getting the team completed as quickly as possible.

“Unfortunately they have not been able to do so.”

Manchester United kick off their season in the Community Shield against Manchester City this Saturday, Live on talkSPORT.

Meanwhile, Arsenal face Wolverhampton Wanderers in their Premier League opener on Saturday 17 August.