Arsenal fail to land any transfers and lose three players as January window slams shut

Arsenal failed to land a single new faces during the January transfer window despite hoping to land a striker with Mikel Arteta only seeing players leave the Emirates

Arsenal had a January to forget with Mikel Arteta failing to see any new faces arrive.

Deadline day was expected to be quiet and so it proved with the Gunners unable to negotiation any new arrivals. Arsenal are in a good position, as was proved by their 5-1 success over Manchester City, but holes still exist in their squad.

The priority in the January transfer window was an attacker but, despite Arteta admitting publicly that the club were looking to find out, they failed and the north Londoners will continue their pursuit of trophies without any more firepower.

Gabriel Jesus’ injury at the start of the month will rule him out for the remainder of the season but, despite being linked with the likes of Alexander Isak, there has been no movement on any signings and Arteta will have no make do with what he started the season with.

There was a late approach made to land Aston Villa star Ollie Watkins with a bid of around £60million lodged. The Midlands club though opted to keep hold of the England international, instead letting Jhon Duran leave for Saudi Arabia.

Arsenal are likely to continue with Kai Havertz as the central point of attack as he’s assisted by the likes of Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli and, when he returns, Bukayo Saka. Summer signing Raheem Sterling has not yet had the desired affect.

Arteta made it clear on Sunday that his focus was not on transfers, but instead on turning round their Carabao Cup semi-final this week. He said: “My focus is that we have the best preparation we can have for Wednesday and that was the only thing I was interested in.”

In terms of exits Arteta has only sanctioned departures for those who were down the pecking order and struggling for minutes. Forward Marquinhos has been unable to cut it at the Gunners and, despite their injuries in the final third, he’s still been allowed to leave on loan and will play out the season in Brazil with Cruzeiro

The major departure of the window was Ayden Heaven’s permanent exit as he headed to rivals Manchester United. Time will tell whether the teenager is a major hit but those at Old Trafford pushed hard to land the player. Young defender Josh Robinson was the third player to leave the Emirates this month, he headed to League One side Wigan.

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