After a busy summer of arrivals, Mikel Arteta has admitted Arsenal must remain open to the idea of further signings in January as an injury run tests the squad. The club brought in eight major additions, but only Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and Mart\u00edn Zubimendi were signed with the explicit aim of improving the starting XI. Others arrived to add depth: Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke to widen attacking options, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapi\u00e9 as versatile defensive cover, plus Christian N\u00f8rgaard in defensive midfield and goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga among the alternatives.<\/p>\n
That depth has been strained by a sequence of setbacks. In Wednesday\u2019s 2\u20130 victory over Brentford, Mosquera was forced off in the first half with an ankle problem, joining a bench that included the injured centre-back duo of Gabriel and William Saliba, who shook his head in dismay. Declan Rice was also forced off against the Bees, Kai Havertz remains a long-term absentee and Leandro Trossard is coping with a thigh problem.<\/p>\n
The mix of recent injuries and several players being eased back from lengthy layoffs has prompted a notable change in Arteta\u2019s public position. This represents a significant departure from his familiar stance of deny, deny, deny. \u201cWe always have to be prepared,\u201d Arteta told assembled media on Friday. \u201cI mean, the moment that we have an option to touch the squad, to bring to the squad or to protect the squad, depending on what happens, I think we need to be open, for example, on what\u2019s going to happen from here \u2018til the window is closed as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s football. So we don\u2019t know, but we\u2019re certainly going to be alert and we know where the risk can come in terms of the squad, and be ready just in case we have to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Financial realities were also referenced. Arsenal are infamously poor sellers: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain\u2019s \u00a335 million move to Liverpool in 2017 remains the club\u2019s most lucrative departure, with Nicolas Anelka\u2019s move to Real Madrid second. Talk of Myles Lewis-Skelly\u2019s potential departure has been floated as one way to balance the books, but Arteta was unequivocal when asked about sales in January: \u201cAt the moment, it\u2019s very clear that there\u2019s no option to do that.\u201d The manager added that, so far, every warm body has been called upon and will continue to be required as the Gunners pursue honours on four fronts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta admits Arsenal must stay open to January signings as injuries test a squad rebuilt in summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172,1163],"tags":[947,606,199],"class_list":["post-4897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","category-transfers","tag-ankle-injury","tag-christian-norgaard","tag-cristhian-mosquera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897","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=4897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}