Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted that the club are not ruling out a signing in January. He said that the club are still looking to add depth to the squad.
Speaking to the media, Arteta said that some injuries could have been avoided, but they have to deal with them. He admitted that they have seen more players get injured than expected this season and said (via GOAL):
"We're going to be really aware of the situation and the timescale of certain players [returning from injury]. If you go from the front line to the back line, that's the depth that you need. When you look across the other clubs, they have 24 or 25 players, so there's nothing special in our squad. The thing is, we’ve had more injuries than expected, some of them not avoidable, I would say, but we want to be better, and we know how important the part of having the right availability with players is going to play in the season."
When asked about the window, Arteta said they are actively looking as Arsenal are always open to signing the right player. He trusts sporting director Andrea Berta to take care of the transfers and said:
"The window is there. We're Arsenal, and we have to be looking at it and saying ‘OK, what do we need?’ We have to be actively looking, and then can we do it or not? That's a different story, but our job is to always be very prepared because something can happen. Again, we assess every situation [with possible departures]. I leave that much more to Andrea to understand what's happening in the market and then the individual players obviously. We have to assess where we are with each of them and get the best situation."
Arsenal have seen William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Bukayo Saka get injured this season, while Jurrien Timber, White, Kai Havertz, Cristhian Mosquera, and Max Dowman are currently out injured.
Arsenal rejected chance to sign Antoine Semenyo
Antoine Semenyo has a £65 million release clause this month, and the AFC Bournemouth winger is close to leaving the club. His clause is active for the first 10 days of the window, and Manchester City are leading the race.
The Athletic have reported that the North London side would have been his first choice if they were interested. However, the Gunners have opted against it, as they do not see the need to spend big on the winger in the winter window.
Chelsea and Liverpool also showed interest in the winger, but have backed out.