‘Very Positive’—Mikel Arteta Takes January Transfer Stance Amid Injury Crisis

The Arsenal manager explained the key factor behind the club’s approach to reinforcements in 2026.

Mikel Arteta is dealing with a raft of injury absentees. / David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta warned that the Premier League leaders are prepared to take an “active” approach to the transfer market amid the current injury crisis to ensure they have a “very positive” January window.

The Gunners may have made eight first-team additions over the summer to the tune of more than £250 million ($337.2 million), but an unrivalled raft of injuries have sternly tested the depth of that squad. Since the start of last season, no club in the Premier League can match the unrelenting torrent of Arsenal’s fitness woes.

Even on a weekend which saw Gabriel Magalhães gratefully welcomed back into the fold, Arteta was still forced to line up against Brighton & Hove Albion with Declan Rice at right back. Riccardo Calafiori and Jurriën Timber both had to be added to a treatment room already crowded by Cristhian Mosquera and Ben White.

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Fortunately the dependable midfielder excelled in defence, but the Arsenal boss does not want to get into the habit of these emergency options.

“The window is there. We’re Arsenal. Now, we have to be looking at it,” he told assembled media this week.

“Okay, what do we need? We have to be actively looking. And then can we do it or not? That’s a different story, but our job is to always be very prepared because something can happen. So, hopefully [it will be] very positive.”

The area of need is expected to be in the backline. Myles Lewis-Skelly is the only Arsenal defender not to have missed at least one match through injury this season. However, as Arteta was at pains to outline, the medical department hold the keys to the transfer kitty this term.

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Arsenal’s Injury-Riddled Rearguard in 2025–26

Player	Types of Injury	Games Missed Through Injury (2025–26)
Gabriel Magalhães (CB)	Hamstring	10
Piero Hincapié (CB/LB)	Groin	8
Ben White (RB/CB)	Knock, hamstring	7*
William Saliba (CB)	Ankle, knock	6
Cristhian Mosquera (CB/RB)	Ankle	6*
Jurriën Timber (RB/CB)	Undisclosed	1*
Riccardo Calafiori (LB/CB)	Hip	1*

*Ongoing absence. Data via Transfermarkt. Correct as of Dec. 29, 2025.

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Arsenal’s January Business Will Depend on Medical Department

Ben White is one of many Arsenal defenders to get injured this season. / Catherine Ivill/AMA/Getty Images

For Arteta, Arsenal’s activity has to be dependent upon the return dates of the players he currently has stockpiled in the club’s medical bay. Without offering any fresh updates himself, the Basque boss explained: “We’re going to be really aware of the situation and the timescales of certain players, going from the frontline to the backline.”

If the likes of White, Timber, Calafiori and Mosquera can all make swift recoveries, there would be little point in adding another defender to a squad which already boasts eight first-team options across the back four.

“That’s the depth that you need,” Arteta continued. “When you look across the other clubs as well, they have 24, 25 squad players, so there’s nothing special in our squad

“The thing is that we have more injuries than expected, some of them not avoidable, I would say. But we want to be better and we know how important having the right availability with players is going to be in the season.”

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