Arsenal beat Brighton at home to claim their latest Premier League victory, but it came after two more defenders suffered injuries
Mikel Arteta has not ruled out using the January transfer window to ease the injury crisis in his defense. “We are Arsenal and we have to look at that: ‘Okay, what do we need?'” he said.
Julian Timber and Riccardo Calafioli join Ben White, while Declan Rice was introduced as an emergency right-back against Brighton. The England defender suffered a hamstring strain in the match against Wolves on December 13, and it is unclear when he will return.
The Gunners spent nearly £250m in the summer, taking Arteta’s total spending to £1bn as they bid to win their first Premier League title since 2004. Arsenal have defenders Cristian Mosquera (Valencia) and Piero Hincapie (Bayer Leverkusen) on loan, but could look to bring in another player in January as the Gunners compete for four titles.
Asked if Premier League leaders could bring in defensive cover next month, Arteta said: “I don’t know, but when you move from the front line to the back line, you’re really, obviously cognizant of the situation and the timescale for a particular player, but that’s the depth you need.”
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“If you look at other clubs, they have 24, 25 players in their teams and there is nothing special about our team. We have had more injuries than expected and some of them are unavoidable, but we want to be better and we know how important it is to have the players in place who will be playing this season.”
“As I said, depending on the availability of certain players, the opportunity is there, so we are Arsenal and we have to look at it, ‘Okay, what do we need?’ And we have to be actively looking and then whether we can do it or not is another story, but our job is always to be ready, anything can happen so hopefully it’s a very positive one.”
Arsenal signed Kepa Arrizabalaga, Martin Zvimendi, Christian Norgaard, Noni Madues, Victor Gokeres and Ebelesi Eze in the summer. Spending has seen players such as Gabriel Martinelli, Ethan Nwaneri and Miles Lewis-Skelly drop down the table.
However, the need for a bigger squad was shown when Calafioli was absent from the game against Brighton during the pre-match warm-up and Lewis-Skelly had to come off the bench. Martinelli also came on in the second half.
The long-term development of this season’s players must take a backseat to Arsenal’s short-term need for silver medals, and the north London club is unlikely to allow anyone to leave in order to get more game time.
“Again, we will assess every situation,” Arteta added. “I’ll leave it to Andrea (Berta) to understand what’s going on in the market, and then I’ll leave it to the individual players. Naturally, we have to assess each player and the situation we’re in and get the best possible situation.”
Gabriel Magalhães was off the bench against Brighton for the first time since injuring his adductor muscle against Brazil last month, but Arteta reported Kai Haverth is “very close” to returning from his knee injury.
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