Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal did a “phenomenal job” trying to bring in the right players during the final days of the transfer window, although the club were ultimately unable to get signings over the line.
The club were in the hunt to sign a midfielder on deadline day, but still made significant additions this summer, notably Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City.
In total, the Gunners made five summer signings, the pair from City, Marquinhos from Sao Paulo, Fabio Vieira from Porto and Matt Turner, a goalkeeper from the MLS.
Arsenal boss Arteta admitted, however, that the club did not manage to get some late signings done in the final hours of the window.
“We had a lot of things still to do in the squad. You see the amount of departures compared to the recruitment and again the club has done a phenomenal job and put everything on the table to try to bring in the players and profile that we wanted,” Arteta said.
“We did the business pretty early, but unfortunately in the last 72 hours Thomas (Partey) got injured in the same place as last time and then Mo (Mohamed Elneny) has a long-term injury and we had to react in the market.
“We tried and at the end of the day we have to bring in the players we feel are right for the team and the club, but we didn’t manage to do that.”
When asked about the club’s actions on deadline day, Arteta added: “We pushed to strengthen the team and bring the best possible people and players into the football club.
“We have managed that to a certain level, but then we have our limitations.
“Time was a big limitation with what happened in the last 72 hours in our midfield. We tried to act but we didn’t find the right player.”
Arsenal travel to Manchester United on Sunday in a bid to improve on their impressive start to the season.
Five games. Five wins. 🖐— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 31, 2022
The Gunners sit top of the league after a flawless start with 15 points from their opening five games and Arteta believes the United match will be difficult.
When asked about United’s transformation under Erik ten Hag, the Arsenal manager said: “When you look at the squad that they have, the amount of money that they have and what they’ve done in the market I’m not surprised.
“They’re going to win a lot of football matches. Manchester United’s history tells you that this is going to happen. It’s another big rival and we have to compete with them.”
