Following the closure of the summer transfer window, Mikel Arteta believes the club have done “a phenomenal job” to bring in quality players and improve the squad.
Deals were done early in the window for Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos and Matt Turner, and while deadline day came and went without a sixth new arrival following a rethink due to midfield injuries, Arteta is overall satisfied with the summer’s work - recap all the ins and outs
Assessing the business, he said: “The club has done a phenomenal job, and put everything on the table to try to bring in the players and the profile that we wanted.
“We did business pretty early, but unfortunately in the past 72 hours Thomas [Partey] got injured in the same place as last time, and then Mo [Elneny] has a long-term injury. Then we had to react in the market and we tried, but at the end of the day we have to bring in the player that we feel is right for the team and for the club.”
Deadline day can see plenty of rapid movement in the transfer market as teams across the world try to strengthen their squad, which sees snap decisions lead to overblown transfer fees and panic buys.
With that in mind, the boss was pleased that we stuck to our guns and only went after a certain profile of player that would improve the quality of the team and be the right fit for the squad, and feels that strategy will pay off long-term.
“We only have to bring in top talent, top quality people through that door and be very disciplined,” he said. “In those moments you can make a huge mistake that can cost the club and the team a lot - not just in the near future but a little bit ahead, and we want to avoid that as much as possible.
“We pushed to strengthen the team and bring the best possible people and players into this football club, and we have managed that to a certain level. Then we have our limitations; time was a big limitation in what happened in the last 72 hours with our midfield. We tried to act but we couldn't find the right player.”
Read everything from Mikel Arteta's pre-match press conference
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