Arsenal coach Unai Emery faces a bleak winter in the transfer market as he feels the Gunners will not succeed in bringing a new defender or any player over to the Emirates Stadium when the transfer window opens in January.
This is despite Arsenal facing a major crisis in defence with a number of defenders out injured ahead of a gruelling pile-up of fixtures over the festive period.
“We don’t have a lot of possibilities in January,” said Arsenal boss Emery. “It’s not easy. January is not good for transfers, but we are going to look. We are giving young players chances but we need a high level in the squad.” Hector Bellerin picked up an injury during the Premier League match at Southampton on Sunday to join Rob Holding, Sead Kolasinac, Skhodran Mustafi and Kostas Mavropanos on the sidelines injured while Sokratis Papastathopoulos was suspended, Nacho Monreal made just his second appearance this season and a rusty Laurent Koscielny made just his first league start in seven months.
Arsenal saw their 22-match unbeaten run in all competitions come to an end in a 3-2 loss at Southampton in the Premier League. Two headers from Danny Ings, returning from a hamstring injury and not one of the tallest players around, along with substitute Charlie Austin’s late winner, also a header following poor decision making from Arsenal’s Bernd Leno, saw the Gunners fall at St. Mary’s.
Defeat meant fifth-placed Arsenal lost ground on Chelsea in fourth and Emery pointed out the importance of losing such a match in the grand scheme of things. “If we miss out on a win like today, we cannot be in the top four because the other teams usually win. After 22 matches without losing, we were still only fifth and that is because of the levels of the other teams.”
With the run now ended, Emery will look to pick Arsenal up with a daunting run of five matches in 13 days, starting with the League Cup quarter-final at home to north London rival, Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday, followed by Premier League matches against Burnley, Brighton & Hove-Albion, against league leaders Liverpool at Anfield, and at home to bottom side Fulham on New Year’s Day.