Arsenal actively looking for January signings
Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal will actively look for reinforcements in January, although he gave no guarantees that any signings would be made.
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Speaking to the media ahead of Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa, Mikel Arteta addressed the club’s situation regarding the impending opening of the transfer window.
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The game against Villa is Arsenal’s last game before they can enter the market, but there are no strong links with any particular player at this stage.
All the same, Arteta confirmed that Arsenal will actively look for reinforcements, and then it’s just a question of whether a deal is there to be done.
“The window is there,” Arteta began. “We are Arsenal and we have to think about it and say ‘OK, what do we need?’ We need to actively search, and can we do that or not? That’s another story, but our job is to always be very prepared because something can happen.
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Arsenal have had numerous injury problems throughout the season so far, particularly with defenders in recent weeks. Arteta admitted that could be a factor when it comes to potential signing targets.
“We are going to be really aware of the situation and the timetable of some players (returning from injury),” Arteta said. “If you’re moving from the front line to the back line, that’s the depth you need.
“The fact is we have had more injuries than expected, some unavoidable I would say, but we want to be better, and we know how big a role good player availability is going to play in the season.”
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The other big question is whether or not players could leave Arsenal in January. This could obviously have a knock-on effect on incomings, and the Gunners will want to know early on whether they expect anyone to push for a transfer.
Arteta suggested he leaves all that to Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta.
“Again, we evaluate every situation,” Arteta added. “I leave it much more to Andrea (Berta) to understand what is happening in the market and then for each player obviously. We have to evaluate where we are with each of them and get the best situation.”