Alexis switching jersey number for 2016-17 season

As part of this morning's new 2016-17 Arsenal home kit reveal, as hundreds of thousands of Arsenal fans hit refresh on arsenal.com to confirm the heavily-rumored Granit Xhaka signing, they were treated to another bit of news: Alexis Sanchez has changed his jersey number.

Alexis will now be #7, enabled by Tomas Rosicky's bittersweet exit from the club. That number, of course, has long since been Alexis's national team number for Chile, and some might see this as stanching the flow of transfer rumors regarding his exit.

There are also additional rumors floating around Arsenal social media channels, involving additional number switching to accommodate Xhaka's preferred jersey number, as well as a more conventional goalie number for Petr Cech, who chose #33 last year, in part, because he was 33 years old -- not because he was attempting a Larry Bird tribute from a continent away.

#8 and #9 are, for the time being, still available for additional summer signings.