In the end it was a frustrating transfer window for Arsenal fans, who were desperate for the club to bring in at least one new attacker.
They did look, most intently at Ollie Watkins, but in the end they kept their powder dry and opted to wait until the summer, rather than move for someone they weren’t overly convinced by.
Only time will tell whether that will end up being a sensible call, but it is a huge gamble on the club’s part.
They were short of attacking options when they went into the window following Bukayo Saka’s injury, but they are even shorter now due to Gabriel Jesus being sidelined because of the knee injury he suffered in the FA Cup.
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So they are relying on picking up no further injuries between now and the end of the season. If they do, then they will be in real trouble. Especially if they lose Kai Havertz for any period of time.
He is basically the only option they have when it comes to playing centre forward. Leandro Trossard can play there at a push, but it’s pretty much Havertz or bust now until May and that is going to put huge demands on him, both mentally and physically.
Mikel Arteta just doesn’t really have an option to give him a breather and I think that’s a real problem. It’s asking an awful lot of a player who has already started to show signs of tiredness in recent weeks.
I’m sure Arteta will defend the club’s lack of activity in the transfer market and some of their reasoning for keeping their hands in their pockets is understandable.
They are through the worst of their fixture congestion now and the hope is that Saka will be back in March. They also believe that Ethan Nwaneri has emerged as a genuine goal getter this season.
And there was a fear that anything they do now could seriously impact their plans for the summer, when their main targets will be easier to secure.
But even so, Arteta has to be disappointed in the failure to strengthen. He has made no secret of the fact that he believes his squad has needed some help. He’s consistently said that throughout his press conferences in January.
Now he has been left with limited attacking options going into the season run-in knowing that he is going to have to try and squeeze almost every last drop of energy out of them. It’s far from an ideal situation
How close were Arsenal to January transfer window signings?
From my understanding they were never really that close to signing an attacker in January. There was genuine interest in Watkins late on in the window, but never really at the price that Aston Villa would have been looking for.
Had Villa come back to the table in the last couple of days I think Arsenal would have looked to get something done closer to their £40million valuation, but that never happened and never even looked like happening once Jhon Duran was sold.
There was lots of chatter about Mathys Tel, but I was told that one never really got off the ground. There were some conversations given his obvious availability, but Arsenal were focused more on exploring moves for an out and out striker, rather than a forward who can play centrally but prefers to play off the left as they already believed they are well stocked in that area.
