Mikel Arteta speaking at an Arsenal press conference
Mikel Arteta is ready to make some signings in January
Mikel Arteta has revealed Arsenal are ready to make some new signings in the upcoming January transfer window after suffering an injury crisis.
Arsenal could be without up to seven players when they host Monaco in the Champions League tonight, with Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu both ruled out with knee injuries. Gabriel, Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Thomas Partey were all absent from training on Tuesday.
As a result, Kieran Tierney could be in line to make his first Arsenal appearance in 16 months and Arteta has admitted the Gunners will need to strengthen their squad if the injury problems do not ease before the transfer window opens.
"The window gives us an opportunity to strengthen the team if we feel that is needed and we feel that we have the capacity to do that as well," Arteta explained ahead of his side's clash with Monaco.
[
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[
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"We are on it and just have to assess the situation because it is changing every week. At the moment not for the better, but I'm positive that in a few weeks we're going to be in a better place."
Although Arsenal's injury problems mean they are set to name their tenth different defensive combination of the season against Monaco, Arteta is hopeful other players will step up and impress.
"It is what it is," he said. "At the end if we have to accept the challenge and its opportunities for other players to do that. In the ideal scenario, we have to be in charge to make those decisions because it's forcing us to make it for the wrong reasons, but as well, we need to accept the reality and move forwards.
Mikel Arteta
Arteta is facing a mounting injury crisis
"I'm really happy with the way that we are playing, and the good thing is that it's not conditioning the team in such a way that we have to become a different team. So, I'm very pleased with that, the way the team is adapting, the way players are making the effort to play in different positions and hopefully the ideal situation will come up very soon and we can do what we want.
"We have a lot of joint injuries that are very difficult to predict. We have some through tackles for example that again are quite difficult to predict. The other one probably is overload - the amount of minutes to play.
"The knock-on effect of not having one or two players available means it puts more strain and minutes on somebody else. That’s not a good change because the consequences and load of all the players starts to be too high, much higher than what you want to do, but it is where we are."
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