Mikel Arteta has defended Arsenal\u2019s summer business, insisting the club delivered on every key objective despite criticism that the squad remains light in attack.<\/p>\n
Arsenal also raised significant money through sales, moving seven players for about $157 million (\u00a3116 million) before add-ons. That total included a new club record sale for Gabriel Martinelli.<\/p>\n
Even so, the main talking point from the window was Arsenal\u2019s failure to secure an elite left winger. The club were linked with Morgan Rogers, Bradley Barcola and Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior, while striker Juli\u00e1n Alavrez made clear that he wanted Barcelona rather than the Gunners.<\/p>\n
Speaking in his first press conference after the deadline, Arteta suggested the club had done all it could. \u201c100% ticked \u2026 the outcome can be different to what you expect, but the intention is certainly there, which is what I value most.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was equally firm when asked about the criticism. \u201cthese are just opinions.\u201d Arteta made it clear he was not interested in revisiting a window that is now shut. \u201cThe window is closed, and I prefer to look at all the incredible things that we have in this squad and not to spend any more time on the things that are not part of us right now. That’s it, and that’s my main responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is still an obvious question around balance in the forward line. Martinelli has departed for Al Hilal, leaving Tzolis as the only natural left winger after replacing Leandro Trossard. Eberechi Eze can operate there, Noni Madueke can do so in an emergency, and academy-level recruit James Scanlon may now see a clearer route into the picture.<\/p>\n
Arteta also pushed back on concerns about overall minutes and injuries from last season. \u201cI understand the point of view as well, but we have to understand as well the amount of minutes that those players played and the ones that were injured last year, especially in the first six months,\u201d he said. \u201cThe data shows something completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta defended Arsenal\u2019s window, but doubts remain over left-wing depth after key summer exits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1843],"tags":[1162,180,182],"class_list":["post-19157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-transfer-news","tag-analytics","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}