Arsenal is Unbalanced
Arsenal may not have it together while heading into this next season. First-team manager, Mikel Arteta, talked about how Arsenal is unbalanced.
There are currently 33 first-team players, but that will change with offloading players like Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira, and Mesut Ozil.
Arteta explained that some positions have more people on the roster than others. Arsenal wants to capitalize before the transfer window closes to equal out the depth of the team.
Rumors circulating have Hector Bellerin and Emiliano Martinez moving away from the club. However, Arsenal is already down five central defenders due to injury. They currently only have eight and have left Arteta in a cornered position.
“It is going to be very difficult to achieve what we want in one or two windows,” Arteta said. “It is a process, it has to be evolving and most importantly it has to be a sustainable model that we can consistently fit in, as well of course using our academy players.
“We are still active in the market; we are looking at different options. We are active in the market with players in and out, at the moment the squad balance is not ideal and what we want to achieve.
“There is still some work to do but we have to bear in mind the complications of this market. The complexity and as well the timing because you can see that clubs are behaving in many different ways and it is a bit uncertain how this is going to evolve in the next few weeks.”
Arsenal is linked to signing Lyon’s Houssem Aouar and Atletico Madrid’s Thomas Partey, but no deal has been made yet.
Arteta has heavily hinted at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s stay at the club. The 31-year-old has reached an agreement on a three-year deal for £250,000-a-week plus bonuses. The announcement will be coming soon.
“I can say that I am even more confident than I was at the end of last season,” he added. “I am really optimistic, yes. With Auba, I think they [the fans] can be pretty relaxed.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal will face off against Fulham on Sept. 12. The last time Arsenal was at Craven Cottage in Oct. 2018, and they won 5-1. The club’s followers were chanting, “we’ve got our Arsenal back.”
Arteta says that it’s too early to decide how well Arsenal will do this season.
“I think it is premature as well, depending on how old that Arsenal is that we are talking about, for example the Invincibles,” he said.
“It is great — we were able to win two trophies, you know we changed quite a lot of things at the club, certainly things look brighter, in my opinion.
“But there is still a long way to go, the gap that I always talk about is still there and we have to make sure that we fill that in this season as much as possible.”
