Mikel Arteta struck a cautious note when discussing Arsenal’s January recruitment plans, emphasising that finding the right quality to improve the squad is easier said than done.
With Bukayo Saka sidelined, recent struggles against low-block defences, and the frustrating missed chances against Newcastle on Tuesday, fans are urging the club to open the chequebook and bolster the attack.
So far, potential signings have been few and far between, and Arteta seems increasingly doubtful that the conditions are right for Arsenal to make the moves they need.
Facing the media ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup clash with Manchester United, he started by addressing what he’s looking for: “First of all, someone that can impact the team, bringing in bodies doesn’t help at all, it’s just about somebody that can impact immediately performance and can bring something that we don’t have, and that, in this market very, is very difficult to achieve.”
“We always have discussions with the ones above, discussing how we can improve the team, always, whether the market is open or closed, because we have to plan for what the necessities are right now and what the necessities are mid and long-term.
“The circumstances changed because we have certain injuries of some big players. So there’s always that possibility [to sign a striker], but always if we believe that it’s somebody that really is going to make us much better.”
One of the key reasons why there’s been so much clamour for the Gunners to sign players who can make an impact in the final third is because in recent years Arteta has spent the majority of his budget plugging other holes, namely in goal, defence and midfield. Basically everywhere else.
Interestingly, he wasn’t shy about pointing this out when asked if he was looking for something specific this time around.
“In the front position, comparing to what other clubs have done and the expenditure that we have there, we are very far from it [their levels] over the years.
“For different reasons, first of all, because we have already very good players and because we had many necessities in the squad to achieve in that period.
“We’re very aware [where we’ve spent money] because we have certain limitations and we have a lot of gaps and a lot of things to cover to become the team that we want. And then the availability of those players, can you afford them as well? Even if you want to. And sometimes it’s been not possible.”
So what happens if Arsenal can’t find their bargain-bucket 30-goal-a-season striker in the next three weeks? Well, as always, Arteta insists he’ll have to look at internal solutions; which sounds a bit like opening the fridge hoping to find something delicious when you know too well you’ve not been to the supermarket in a month.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” he replied when asked if he believes his players can start putting chances away.
He added: “If you look at a sample of a game or two or three, that’s a very short sample, you cannot use that.
“We don’t use any short samples because they don’t correlate to team performance. When you look at a year or two, team performance, scores, the amount of players that are involved, then there is no discussion that we have to focus on our players.”
Pressed on bigger sample sizes also suggesting Arsenal have an issue in attack, he said: “When we were the team that scored more goals in the calendar year in the Premier League, I don’t think that can be a problem.”
The attacker we’re looking for has to have the right profile, has to be very very good, has to be very very cheap, and can’t demand huge wages… Are we looking for an unicorn or a centaurus? because all that stuff together simply don’t exist in real life, you need to compromise on something or else you will be always searching for something that really isn’t there. And if we take too long to realize that, we may see some stars leaving in search for a more ambitious club, which will bring this problem to more positions… I really though… Read more »
Agree. And if we couldn’t do the big star striker in the summer, Mbeumo or a similar level of signing *in the summer* would’ve still helped hugely with the situation we’re in (and not overplaying Saka).
The truth is not that we’re hunting for unicorns, but that KSE have a notional amount of risk they’re willing to take on, and it consistently stops short of title winning levels.
I don’t think we will bring anybody in to be honest. The only one that wouldn’t shock me would be Mbeumo but I think there’s less than a 10% chance of getting that done in January. The one thing I’ll say about Arteta despite any of his faults, you get the sense that he’s aware of any issues and not in denial. I also sense that he cares about the club as much as us- a trait shared with Wenger.
Maybe he’s aware now, but it’s very difficult to explain this summer and reach the conclusion that he saw what we all saw. Shipping out all attacking backup and bringing in yet more defensive-minded players makes it abundantly clear that he did not see our glaring issues in attack. He has to wear that.
I realize people will respond with “but we went for Sesko first,” but, in my opinion, that makes it clear that they were only prepared to sign attackers if they were a bargain while happy to overpay for mediocre players elsewhere.
Spot on. The summer transfer business (in and out) was a disaster and he has to be accountable for that. BTW, this narrative that’s emerging that he didn’t really want sterling because he never plays him…bollocks…he has final say on every incoming/outgoing. He was lavish in his praise of sterling when he arrived and we can only assume sterling’s performance in training is so dire that he will never get near the starting xi unless we have no one else fit.
And then there’s merino…
Despite our obvious issues in attack I still believe that buying at least one good defender was a priority last summer. Last season we’ve been spoiled with Saliba’s and Gabriel’s ever presence. Without Calafiori (who himself has been injured quite a lot…), if anything happens to one of our default centre backs, Kiwior would have to play there, and we don’t want that. Maybe Ben could deputise there as well, but I’m sure there’s a reason he wasn’t deployed in this position in a couple of years now. Our fullbacks are injured all the time, to the point that our… Read more »
Sure, but the decisions don’t follow logically unless the club thought there was *only* risk of defensive injuries. If they bought another defender because they foresaw a scenario where 5 defenders were out at once, why were they unable to simultaneously foresee one where *any* attacking player was injured at any point.
That we had far more latitude for defensive injuries to start last season and ignored the attack instead is really the crux of the issue.
And further, if we are so terror-bound over defensive injuries, why did we prioritize a defender with one of the worst possible injuries in his develop
The most obvious spot for an upgrade in the squad was the minutes Kiwior played at LB last season. The biggest hole in the squad in terms of a need for an established starter was at LCM (Declan Rice was moonlighting there). The greatest structural/systemic issue in the squad was the left hand side attacking dynamic. Not gonna say the club got everything right but you don’t have to squint too hard to see the intention to fix exactly those issues with those two signings. They added a front foot defender with a rare blend of size, height and ability… Read more »
I don’t agree with your core premise – I think the most obvious need was a dynamic left winger or someone who could play across the front line. Going into the season we had plenty of cover at FB, including Timber who would be available as a dynamic new player at LB. None of that grapples with my core complaint though, which is that our summer transfer business appeared desperately afraid of defensive injuries while appearing not to even consider that an attacker could be injured. All that said, I’m not looking for a stick to beat Arteta with –… Read more »
If you think about a football team as an organism, which I think is apt, the LW position is one that we attempted to support with these signings by creating a better ecosystem. With Calafiori, Martinelli is getting a running mate he can play off of, who is a threat with his crossing, and can also underlap. With Merino, he’s getting someone who is willing to spam forward passes to him as well as open shooting angles by crashing the box. Any LW we might have bought would have thanked us for that type of support. It hasn’t all clicked… Read more »
Martinelli’s form has gone off a cliff since Calafiori and (especially) Merino, have come into the team. Even Stevie Wonder can see how broken our left side has become since Granit left.
Not sure what you are implying, as we have no cover for Saliba and Calafiori has never play centre back for us
Spending money on Calafiori and Merino is increasingly looking like misplaced investments. Neither has really improved the team significantly, whilst Partey is playing better and staying fitter, and Lewis-Skelly has been a very capable stand-in at left back. The forward line however was in dire need of reinforcement but only Sterling came in, which has not had the desired impact. A top striker or winger was needed last summer, but instead Arteta went for the safer option of bolstering defence and midfield. It looks like a missed opportunity that could cost Arsenal a shot at a major trophy this season.
I’d really love us to spend on a super attacker – not downplaying the need there – but what would our lineup have been in games where we were short on defensive options if we hadn’t brought in those two?. No one loves TP at RB – but he was able to shift there and as so far stayed fit this season because we have another pretty decent option. Cali + MLS are the new cover for the left side because we are missing our play anywhere Tomi. It’s kind of like trying to prove a negative – but I’d… Read more »
In theory there should have been enough cover in both full back positions, with Timber, White, Tomi at right back and MLS, Zinchenko, Tierney and Kiwior at left back. Injuries have depleted the ranks, but you should not normally need more than three options for any one position. The injury problems with certain players has been long term and probably needed to be addressed some time ago.
The problem is we are so rigid in playing “system” football meaning unless the player fits exactly the plan down to centimeters on the pitch where they have to run to/position themselves etc then they won’t get a look in. When injury crisis hits this inflexibility really bites us on the arse.
I think it’s easy to say that for as long as Gabriel and Saliba stay fit. The injury of the latter derailed our title push in 22/23, and without Calafiori, we wouldn’t have any decent backup for the two (Kiwior makes too many mistakes, Tomi is always injured, Timber is too short and Ben, well, he didn’t play there in years now).
Merino I can agree a bit more, but only after seeing Nwaneri emerge as an option in the starting lineup.
Sadly fulltime against Man Utd and my point is proved. Loads of missed chances and we are out of the Cup. We need to strengthen the forward line because the current strikers are not clinical and will lose us games.
The problem is modern scouting and recruitment. All these big clubs have the same player pool they look at. Alot of it is agent driven and not scout driven too. If we can’t compete financially with these Oil clubs then we need to be more innovative and creative in our recruitment strategies than anyone else.
May I ask where this information comes from?
Arsenal has tried to cut ties with agent-based transfert since we got rid of Sanllehi and his friend Kia Joorabchian which is the opposite of what PSG is doing with Mendes and Sissoko for example.
Also, may I dare to mention data analysis to help scouting department in allocating its ressources to efficiently scout ?
Everybody uses the same data analysis software, the same metrics, the same conclusions and unless you have the cash to spend massively then 9 times out of 10 you are going to get outbid by the oil clubs.
Then explain why Brighton/Brentford have been able to find some quality players without getting outbid by oil clubs?
Tell me who right now in those teams would you buy for Arsenal?
baleba
I think Mbeumo would be a pretty good signing, don’t you think?
This is the thing that irks me the most. Brighton, Brentford and other clubs not only identify quality players at decent prices they actually go out and buy them. All we ever hear from Ornstein is that Arsenal “like” a player, or they’re “confident that they can get” a player, while Arsenal faff about and faff about until another club buys that player and he does really well and we start getting idiotic stories about how Arsenal are interested in buying him for three times the original price. Either StatDNA is total crap, or the people using it are, or… Read more »
Mmh i think it’s also easier for them to buy prospects such as Minteh or Gruda. They’re aiming for the Europa league at best. They can give chances to young players while we are aiming for the silverware.
Mbuemo, Kudus, Cunha, Joao Pedro? Any one of them would improve us, none of them cost huge money, and there are plenty of others. What do Arsenal scouts actually do? If we had a decent loan department we could get young players and loan them out, like we did with Saliba, but that’s another department that seems incapable, most player loans end up being a waste of their time. It’s really frustrating. Maybe Edu leaving is a good thing and somebody new can come in and shake things up a bit.
And yet we find multiple new defenders whenever the need arises. I think that indicts the system we play more than anything.
We don’t need another striker. We just need the right ball. Once we find the right ball, we can achieve many beautiful things.
I tend to agree; what’s disconcerting is how far off the form radar Martinelli, Trossard and Odegaard have fallen. Add in Saka’s absence and you’re looking at a potentially grim state of affairs. And against Newcastle, all of our nightmares came true.
I think we DO need a striker – but the form of those around said striker need to improve drastically.
We could have Pele, Maradona or a 2004 Thierry Henry up front and they’d probably all struggle due to the lack of creativity elsewhere.
It can’t last, this impasse.
Allegedly, the fair play rules allow Arsenal to spend £119 million in 2025. Isak is probably £150 million, and might be acquirable it we sell two-three left backs. But I cannot see the richest man in the world, MBS, sell him under any circumstances.
Williams is more realistic, but both of them are best in fast attacks. If we continue the slow build-up, we will not have much pleasure from either of them.
I’m a little disappointed with the tone of some of this reporting. It’s almost like you are heckling Arteta with the commentary. But no smart comeback to his point about goals scored in 2024.
Goals by committee won us nothing in 2024. Especially when the bulk came against bottom half teams.
goalscoring is super, the division of the scoring is the problem! scoring hundred in 19 games and 0 in other 19 gives you evtly 70 points, not enough for a title… ☹️
Arsenal’s net transfer spend in the past 5 years is right up there with any club you care to name. Only Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham (marginally) have spent more than the gunners. So if you want to talk about ambition, there’s the proof in the pudding. If you want to talk about value for money spent, Arsenal were top 5 in Europe in terms of points per game in 23/24 at 2.34 points per game, and the only member of the top 6 in this category to not win their domestic league. Plus there was a run to the… Read more »
That’s an excuse, not an answer. Have a feeling this has more to do with no director of football than anything else.
Let’s bring in Chris Wood so we can lump it forward in the last 20 mins. Oh wait, we do that already but have no one there to head it in.
Each time Raya hoofs it up, we turn over possession. Simple as that.
And it’s not doing my blood pressure any good.
When I was an ankle-biter back in the day, my parents didn’t have a lot of the green stuff – and consequently, I grew up knowing that if I pestered them for something out of budget, then a clip round the ear, or at least a reprise of the mantra ‘We haven’t got it, deal with it’ would be carefully unwrapped from its protective cover, like some piece of vintage vinyl and the needle would get placed on the record. It was ok though; looking back I learned a valuable life lesson pretty early on. Arsenal, too, always seemed to… Read more »
Melimelum cras?
Totally agree by the way
Crass.
Excellent Punk band from Epping. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
It is not easy, but it’s also not that difficult. Others can do it, we should be able to do it too. It looks more that there is no real desire to do it, for whatever reason, and we are a bit Goldilocks in our approach obviously. As I’m starting to get underwhelmed and we are very close to derailing our season through our fault (yes, refs f*ed us, yes we had injuries), but we definitely started the season lacking in many areas. While also Mikel chose not to use healthy senior players that could share the burden. So, his… Read more »
Arsenal’s goalkeeper goes too early in the penalty kick. He must learn to stand until the ball arrives.