Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal are “actively” seeking reinforcements, though he remained tight-lipped about the specific type of player he’s after.
With Bukayo Saka sidelined as he recovers from hamstring surgery and Gabriel Jesus out for the season with an ACL injury, the Gunners are stretched thin in attack, especially with fixtures piling up every three days.
A new striker is already on the summer shopping list, but there’s talk of Arsenal accelerating their plans, even if it means paying over the odds this month. That said, January is a notoriously tricky window, and RB Leipzig’s swift rebuff of rumoured interest in Benjamin Sesko shows how tough it is to pry key players away mid-season.
Ahead of Saturday’s clash with Aston Villa, Arteta was pressed on whether Arsenal can genuinely compete for the title without bolstering the squad.
“At the moment, we don’t have them,” he replied. “We are trying, as I said, actively to find the best possible solution. But we will have to wait and see what we can do.
“Obviously, it [the profile of player] is not something that I’m going to discuss here. We have lost two massive players for us in the front line and we need some support.”
That use of the word “need” sparked a further question from the media who reminded the Spaniard that earlier in the window he’d used the word “want” when referring to targets.
“Obviously, we have more necessity now because of what happened in the last few weeks, that’s obvious,” said Arteta.
As for how hard it is to operate in the January market, he added: “I think it’s more a question for [interim Sporting Director] Jason [Ayto]. I don’t know, but I think we have to do what we think is right and we can do as well and that’s it.
“It’s clear that we would like to improve the squad, especially with what happened, can we do it or not? That depends on a lot of factors.”
It would need to be from a club comfortably placed mid table, and expecting to finish there. Semenyo from Bournmouth maybe?
They are engaged in a run to get european football and they fully deserve it. THey just lost their main striker and his understudy to long term injuries. Not happening.
That Sulemana for Southampton on their left last night against manyoo looked pretty useful- fast, powerful, inventive, and carries the ball pretty well.
Tyler Dibling, Southampton, would be a good choice. He’d fit in with our recruiting policies too.
He’s quite highly rated, but if we’re splashing that kind of cash for a midfielder, I’d prefer Adam wharton
Would prefer Justin Kluivert if I was shopping at Bournemouth! Doubt they would sell either mid season, especially as Iraola is doing so well with that group.
Jonathan David at Lille is probably the best we’d get in this window..
makes sense that we’d get yet another player with not one but two biblical names…
Meanwhile city get Marmoush for 60 mil while we dick around looking for bargains….nit good enough Arsenal.
Consequence of edu having one foot out the door all summer and the other tied up on merino.
It’s a risk going for a player with a six month purple patch…
We’re going to end up with no one coming in and that is unacceptable with us still in the hunt for the league! We desperately need reinforcements up front to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool next 4 months: we need to get this done now, stop dicking around Arsenal!
Not every Egyptian is Salah, he is still a gamble for city
More of a gamble than Mudryk?
Meanwhile ex hale ender Malen has gone to Villa for only 20 odd mil, he would’ve been perfect, and that’s a good deal right there.
Olmo for 6 months maybe?
Plus someone EPL ready like Muembo Watkins or Ferguson. Different age profiles for different budgets.
Villa are never doing business with us while emery is there- too much of a chip on his shoulder still.
I doubt Emery will have a say on that if the offer is good for the owners
I don’t think being unwilling to sell your best is insecurity. Plus, as Artedu points out, it’s usually a matter of price. Ferguson wouldn’t “sell that lot a virus” until they offered what they offered for Ronaldo.
I see no chip on his shoulders?
A soggy Waffle maybe….but all the same a dignified chap
Mbeumo is a good shout. He’s the perfect age, proven in the Prem, scores different types of goals, always shown a fantastic attitude. Just my uninformed guess, but I reckon we’d be able to do the deal for maybe £50m? Definitely a lot cheaper than if we went for a high-profile option such as Osimhen, Isak, Gyökeres, Seskô or Lookman.
Some of us have been saying mbeumo for about 3 seasons now…
I reckon we could do Osihmen at £60-65 with attainable add ons.
There is a quality front forward there, just havn’t got a profile on his character/attitude?
Ahh well, that’s why Super Mik and his goons get paid the macaroons
Brentford would ask for stupid money for Mbuemo. Frank said he’s not going anywhere.
It’s obviously a need, not just a want. We have four senior attackers. If one of them have a minor injury or is ill, we literally have no substitutes. Which means, realistically, paying far more than would otherwise be justified and probably for a player who does not fit our needs “perfectly”: older than we would want, or not as positionally flexible as Arteta likes, or something else. But ready to play, not a disrupter in the dressing room, no big history of injuries. Much more than a warm body, but probably less than we are paying for.
Can we really count sterling though? He’s a shadow of the player he was even 18 months ago, and doesn’t seem like he’s up for the challenge, just getting into the side now because of a lack of alternatives (I’d rather give an academy kid who has a future with us a chance than someone who isn’t going to show enough effort).
If any more attackers are injured– Big Gabi will get to realize his wettest dream– of playing up top as our center forward.
I think his dream–and Saliba’s–is to score from the edge of the box on a volley. He did it once, but was offside and Saliba has leathered a couple pretty well but missed. I think his dream is to be Alexis or Aaron Ramsey, not Olivier Giroud. (But I definitely would settle for prime Giroud.)
Prime Giroud in this team, even as a plan B, or playing as a 9 1/2 with Martinelli off his shoulder
Hmm, nice fantasy attack
Were gonna end up with Rashford aren’t we
Honestly, I kind of wish we do. Yes mercurial and not the tracking back Arteta kind of player, but in terms of talent not sure we can do better than that this window. At least get him on a loan and then find someone better in the summer.
Just realised we’re at our loan max but surely we can solve that by releasing either Sterling or Neto, either would be a slight gamble but we’re at that point where we kind of need to gamble…
Openda?
I’m not going to pretend I watch much BL but while I don’t think he’s the absolute answer, he could give us something over the next six months, shouldn’t break the bank too badly and therefore enable us to still go for ‘the answer’ in the summer and still be there to give us really strong squad depth and option from the bench
It’s hard in January and as Blogs said, every club knows our predicament.
Time to get Lupoli back?!…. reckon Henry could still do a job 😉
Henry probably has more energy than sterling 😉😂
Brilliant that we have an urgency to sign a forward. Gyökeres is on the radar with rumours that we could trigger his release clause of €70M. I was surprised to see he used to play for Coventry from whom he was purchased by Sporting for €20M in the summer of 2023. Before Coventry, he was with Brighton who reportedly got him for £1M from a Swedish club. I wish we could have spotted this guy earlier.
I still can’t believe that me missed on the opportunity to get Kolo Muani on loan. The six month loan Juventus got would have been perfect for us.
It’s another player that isn’t a clinical finisher, but he’s so perfect for us. He can play both center forward and on both wings, exactly what we need.