Mikel Arteta has urged Arsenal to make January signings as quickly as possible, with the Premier League leaders preparing to face Newcastle, Tottenham and Manchester United during a key month in the title race.
Arteta’s team lead Manchester City by five points going into Monday’s match at home to West Ham. The manager has said Arsenal are “going to be active” in the window and believes the speed with which they get deals done could shape their season. A game at home to Newcastle on 3 January is followed by an FA Cup third-round tie at Oxford, and then come fixtures at Spurs on 15 January and a visit from Manchester United a week later.
“We knew the importance of getting players early in the summer and that is the same we want to do in January,” Arteta said. “This is idealistic. Sometimes it is not realistic. But obviously, if you ask my opinion, as quick as possible we want the players in to get settled.”
When it was put to Arteta that every game counts in a title race he said: “Absolutely. In this league with the competition, where the bar is and what the standards have been for the last four or five years – something the Premier League has not experienced in the past – we know that every point is going to be massively important.”
An injury to Gabriel Jesus has intensified Arsenal’s need for a forward and the Shakhtar Donetsk winger Mykhaylo Mudryk is their priority target. Arteta reiterated that he was interested only in the right signings. “What we cannot afford to do is get a player here that is not for us,” he said. “We don’t need a body, we need players that make the team better.”
He is banking on the sporting director, Edu, and the board, delivering. “We are very aligned with the players we are looking for,” Arteta said. “Whether they are possible or affordable, the timing of it, depends on so many things that are out of my control. The theory says that it is a very tricky window.”
Arteta wants signings with a winning mentality – “We think about Arsenal as a team and a club that has to be at the very best” – and said he was far from satisfied with his achievements across three years in charge. “The hardest thing is to win. And once you have won, to win again. And to win again and again.”