LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 03: Mesut Ozil of Arsenal looks dejected during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Emirates Stadium on January 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Arsenal's new chief executive Vinai Venkatesham suggested the Gunners could "afford to miss out" on Champions League football next season.

On Thursday, Mikel Arteta's job title was changed from "head coach" to "first-team manager."

It comes as the latest move aimed at improving the Gunners operations.

Arsenal have made 55 non-playing staff redundant as they adjust to the loss of revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Senior executives have all taken pay cuts, followed by the entire first-team squad.

"I've been at this club for 10 years and this is not a big organisation, we don't have hundreds of thousands of employees all around the world," Venkatesham said

"We've got hundreds of employees all based within 30 miles of each other. I know people very closely.

"So, to make a decision that we had to propose redundancies was really, really tough and we did that for the right reasons.

"Unfortunately we see a different economy ahead and we needed to restructure our organisation"