Mikel Arteta just stated the painfully obvious about Arsenal’s January transfer window
The Arsenal team is currently one of the best in Europe. It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact: the Gunners have looked really good in many, many games, and even in the games they haven’t played as well, they’ve managed to come out of those games with three points in most cases.
The best of Arsenal comes out in the combinations. The manager, the front office and the players all have a common goal: to win as many trophies as possible. This season, expectations are higher than ever, making the margin for error extremely small.
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To maintain such a low margin, Arsenal need quality. Even though this is their best team in years, Arsenal still need players to compete with the best of the best. Manchester City and Liverpool spend money regardless of the month, provided there is a clear need for a certain profile.
Arsenal, if they want to consistently compete for top titles, will need to follow the same approach.
Mikel Arteta has just stated the painfully obvious about Arsenal’s January transfer window
And that’s exactly what Mikel Arteta talked about in his pre-match statement ahead of their clash with Aston Villa on Tuesday.
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He said: “We are going to be very aware of the situation and the timetable of certain players (returning from injury). If you move from the front line to the back line, that’s the depth you need. When you look at other clubs, they have 24 or 25 players, so there is nothing special in our team.
“The fact is that we have had more injuries than expected, some unavoidable I would say, but we want to be better, and we know how important the good availability of players is going to play this season.
“The window is there. We are Arsenal and we have to look at 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.”
(On departures), again, we evaluate each situation. I leave it much more to Andrea (Berta) to understand what is happening in the market, then obviously with individual players. We need to evaluate where we are with each of them and get the best situation.”
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These are the words Arsenal fans wanted to hear. And also the words they expected to hear.
Times have changed, and that’s the sort of smart business club like Arsenal must do to stay competitive.
Arsenal must look for opportunities to improve their team. They won’t spend money for the sake of it, but if there’s a chance to make this current team even better, Arsenal will have to grab it with both hands before someone else does.
This article was originally published on www.paininthearsenal.com as Mikel Arteta has just stated the painfully obvious regarding Arsenal’s January transfer window.