{"id":5481,"date":"2025-12-29T16:22:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/2025\/12\/29\/arteta-confirms-arsenal-will-take-active-january-stance-as-injuries-mount\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T16:22:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:22:03","slug":"arteta-confirms-arsenal-will-take-active-january-stance-as-injuries-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/2025\/12\/29\/arteta-confirms-arsenal-will-take-active-january-stance-as-injuries-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"Arteta confirms Arsenal will take &#8216;active&#8217; January stance as injuries mount"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mikel Arteta has made clear Arsenal will approach the January window with an active mindset while the club manages a mounting injury list. The manager warned his side are prepared to explore the market to cover absences and described his hopes for a &#8220;very positive&#8221; outcome in January.<\/p>\n<p>Even with Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es back in contention, Arteta was forced to deploy Declan Rice at right back against Brighton &amp; Hove Albion as Riccardo Calafiori and Jurri\u00ebn Timber joined Cristhian Mosquera and Ben White in an already busy treatment room. The dependable midfielder adapted well in defence, but Arteta does not want to rely on emergency solutions long term.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe window is there. We\u2019re Arsenal. Now, we have to be looking at it,\u201d he told assembled media this week.<\/p>\n<p>Arteta stressed the club\u2019s activity will be tied to medical timelines. \u201cOkay, what do we need? We have to be actively looking. And then can we do it or not? That\u2019s a different story, but our job is to always be very prepared because something can happen. So, hopefully [it will be] very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The primary concern is the backline. Myles Lewis-Skelly is the only Arsenal defender yet to miss a match through injury this season. The club\u2019s injury record for the campaign includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es (CB) \u2014 Hamstring \u2014 10 games missed<\/li>\n<li>Piero Hincapi\u00e9 (CB\/LB) \u2014 Groin \u2014 8 games missed<\/li>\n<li>Ben White (RB\/CB) \u2014 Knock, hamstring \u2014 7* games missed<\/li>\n<li>William Saliba (CB) \u2014 Ankle, knock \u2014 6 games missed<\/li>\n<li>Cristhian Mosquera (CB\/RB) \u2014 Ankle \u2014 6*<\/li>\n<li>Jurri\u00ebn Timber (RB\/CB) \u2014 Undisclosed \u2014 1*<\/li>\n<li>Riccardo Calafiori (LB\/CB) \u2014 Hip \u2014 1*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>*Ongoing absence. Data via Transfermarkt . Correct as of Dec. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Arteta underlined that any recruitment will depend on recovery timetables. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be really aware of the situation and the timescales of certain players, going from the frontline to the backline.\u201d If White, Timber, Calafiori and Mosquera return quickly, signing an additional defender may be unnecessary given the club already lists eight first-team options across the back four.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the depth that you need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look across the other clubs as well, they have 24, 25 squad players, so there\u2019s nothing special in our squad ]\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arteta signals Arsenal will be active in January, hinging decisions on injury return timelines. 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1163],"tags":[947,984,199],"class_list":["post-5481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-transfers","tag-ankle-injury","tag-ben-white","tag-cristhian-mosquera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481","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=5481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}