Mikel Arteta provides telling Arsenal transfer hint as defensive injury crisis worsens

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has hinted at spending in the January transfer window amidst an escalating injury crisis at the club.

The Gunners could be missing up to seven key players for their Champions League encounter with Monaco tonight, with Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu sidelined due to knee injuries.

Absentees from Tuesday’s training session also included Gabriel, Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Thomas Partey. This situation might pave the way for Kieran Tierney to make his first appearance for Arsenal in 16 months.

Arteta acknowledged the need for reinforcements, saying: “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.

“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.”

Despite the defensive woes which will likely lead to Arsenal’s tenth different backline this season, Arteta is confident other squad members will rise to the occasion.

“It is what it is,” he acknowledged. “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.

“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.”