Arsenal’s Arteta defends decision to sell players in January without additions

Arsenal supervisor Mikel Arteta defended the membership’s choice to promote gamers within the January switch window with out making main additions, saying it was the best factor to do at the moment.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Pablo Mari, Calum Chambers, Sead Kolasinac and Folarin Balogun have been among the many gamers who left Arsenal in January.

Injuries to key gamers Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey have left Arteta with a skinny squad, affecting the membership’s hopes of securing a top-four Premier League end.

“They were players that we did not really use. And you put them in the context now, I don’t know how much they would have played,” Arteta advised British media on Friday.

“We made a decision on what we believed was the right thing to do for the club, then for the players who were asking for the opportunity to play football because they didn’t have any minutes in several months.”

Arsenal are fifth within the league on 54 factors after 29 matches and face Thirteenth-placed Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

Arteta stated it could not make a lot distinction which European competitors they qualify for subsequent season, with each the Champions League and second-tier Europa League requiring a a lot bigger squad owing to the variety of matches.

“If you can afford it and we don’t have to do the turnaround in the squad that we’ve had to do, if you ask me what I want – it’s 22 outfield players and three goalkeepers,” Arteta stated.

(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel)