After spending close to £300 million in the summer, and with a commitment to buy loanee Piero Hincapié at the end of the season, it feels unlikely Arsenal will be especially active when the January transfer window opens.
Even with a first half of the campaign pockmarked by injuries to key players, often for weeks or months at a time, the Gunners have had sufficient depth to cope. More than cope, in fact, when you consider they sit top of the league at home and in Europe, and have already reached the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
That said, alongside the constant debate about whether this squad has fully clicked, there remains a nagging concern that further injuries could yet prove decisive in the pursuit of silverware.
For that reason, it’s easy to understand why the club would remain open to market opportunities, even if Mikel Arteta sounded non-committal when asked about his January plans.
“I don’t know, we’re going to be really aware of the situation and the timescale of certain players [returning] going from the front line then to the back line.
“But that’s the depth that you need, when you look across the other clubs as well, they have 24, 25 squad players, and so there’s nothing special in our squad.
“The thing is that obviously we have 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 be in this season.”
Asked whether his squad feels complete, Arteta added: “Depending, as I said, on the availability of certain players, the window is there, we’re Arsenal, and we have to be looking at i,t what do we need, and we have to be actively looking and then can we do it or not, that’s a different story.
“But our job is to be always very prepared because something can happen, so hopefully very positive.”
There appears to be limited scope for outgoings, but if one player might feel frustrated by how the season has unfolded, it is Ethan Nwaneri. The England under-21 international has neither started a Premier League game nor come off the bench in the last five.
Bournemouth are reportedly keen on taking the 18-year-old on loan, a move that would offer him an outside chance of pushing for a place in England’s World Cup squad, even if his path is blocked at Arsenal by Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze.
Arteta has already played down the chance of outgoings but asked again about the situation, deferred to his sporting director.
“Again, we assess every situation. I leave that much more to Andrea [Berta] to understand what’s happening in the market and individual players, obviously. We have to assess where we are with each of them and get the best situation.”