Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has revealed that he is already preparing for the January transfer market, but admitted that predicting what is going to happen is nearly impossible.
After an underwhelming start to the season which has seen the Gunners fall down to 14th in the Premier League, Arteta is expected to pursue some new signings in January to try and salvage something from this season.
Red Bull Salzburg's Dominik Szoboszlai and Inter's Christian Eriksen have both been suggested as potential solutions to Arsenal's lack of creativity, but Arteta refused to be drawn on any of his plans for the January window.
“We are planning, talking with Edu and with the club about the things we can do in January," he confessed. “But at the moment it's pretty difficult, unpredictable as well in terms of places we are very restricted in the moment.
“We’ll see what happens, I think things will move in the market, we will be prepared, we will need to do something knowing the limitations of that market in January and the limitations we have as well to sign players.”
Midfield is expected to be Arteta's preferred area of improvement. None of his side's goals this season have come from Arsenal's midfielders, and Arteta acknowledged the importance of improving in that area.
“It’s very clear. If you say: ‘Can they do it?’ It’s a question mark. Have they done it in the past? The answer is no,” he added. “We haven’t had any goals from midfield, it’s not something that happened this year. It happened in other years and is something that has to be addressed.
“To change the qualities and characteristics of players is very, very difficult. So again, it’s necessary. A big team needs players in midfield who score goals. They need central defenders that score goals from set-pieces to add to that.
“If you start to lose those margins, you start to lose points, you start to be away from the top teams, this is not any science.”
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Source : 90min