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Arsene Wenger On New Signings & Finding A Replacement For Arteta

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger gave an update on potential new arrivals at the Emirates following the 2-0 defeat to champions Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.

With the January transfer window now open for business we’ll be keeping you up-to-date with all the latest transfer gossip. Today, Arsene Wenger gives an update on his transfer activity.

Mikel Arteta Arsenal

As Gooners were left reflecting on another frustrating weekend’s action, we all hoped for some encouraging news from Arsene Wenger about potential new arrivals after the defeat to Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking to Arsenal.com, the boss once again confirmed he was working hard to identify new players saying his team analyse everything and scout targets but refused to reveal any specific names.

Midfielder Mikel Arteta missed the City game after picking up a calf injury in training on Friday and is likely to miss the next three weeks. Many are questioning how we’re going to replace the Spaniard but Wenger doesn’t think it will be with a new signing as he claims it’s difficult to find players of Arteta’s quality in January.

The boss told the clubs official website:

on making signings…

We are in the market. To find players of a calibre of Arteta, available in January, I wish you good luck. We try very hard, believe me. We have a team around me who analyse everything. We select targets, I watch them… But it’s difficult to speak about any names.

Before this weekend, Arteta had played every minute of Premier League football this season – mainly due to a lack of depth in the squad – so who’s surprised he’s picked up an injury? Not me.

So now we face 5 games in 13 days in the defining part of the season, and we don’t have a fit defensive midfielder available. Well, actually, we have Francis Coquelin and Emmanuel Frimpong but it seems Wenger would rather use a 50% fit Abou Diaby who hasn’t played in 4 months than either of those two, so it doesn’t give them much hope of getting a game any time soon.

I’ve been calling for Arsene to buy a proper defensive midfielder all season and it would have been prudent to do it early in the window, so we would be prepared for injuries like Arteta’s this weekend, but as we reach the midway point in the January transfer window we still await a new face to arrive.

Sure the January window is a difficult one but we’ve put ourselves in this position by not conducting our business properly in the summer. The deficiencies in the squad are obvious for all to see. You just had to look at our bench yesterday to see that. So I’m afraid the excuses of ‘I can’t find the players in January’ doesn’t wash with me, Arsene.

If a club doesn’t want to sell, you make them sell. They do it to us! Be more aggressive and force the issue, talk about how ‘player x has Arsenal DNA’ and all that stuff.  Pay what you need to pay to get your targets.

I still think we’re going to buy in the window but unfortunately it seems Arsenal are doing their usual trick of waiting till the last few days to try and squeeze the price down. Which, given the amount of games we’ve got this month, is completely counter-productive.

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The earlier they get in and can settle, the more impact they will have upon our season. So it’s time to pull you finger out Arsene and bring in the players we need, or we’ll finally miss out on that fourth-place ‘trophy’ you keep going on about.

Do you think Arsenal will buy? Who would you like to see come in? Get involved in the comments section below.

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