Arsenal had a busy summer transfer window, making six signings, all aged 23 or under as the club is eager to get back to its glory days.
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Mikel Arteta is pleased with the way Arsenal strengthened their squad in this transfer window. Arsenal had a busy summer window, making six signings, all aged 23 or under as the club is eager to get back to its glory days. He believes the new additions will complement the players he already has at his disposal. “[They all have] different experiences, some had experience in the league, so me abroad, and some have been coached in other ways, but they are players we have followed for a long time that we knew could fit in the model we are trying to implement at the club. So we are pleased,” he told Arsenal Media.
“It was a really complicated market. We had a lot of things to do, I think we had 16 or 17 transactions in total, which is a lot. You have to blend them all together, some of them haven’t even trained with us yet because they have still to come in the next week or so. We have a good group, they will help them to adapt as quick as possible and get them to work with us and see when we can integrate all together. The club has made a big effort, we had support from the owners to try to do it and we had to recruit in the terms that we could, and I’m very pleased.”
Mikel Arteta also hailed the versatility of the new signing, Takehiro Tomiyasu after he joined the club on the transfer deadline day. The Japan international can play at right back or as a centre back, making him a player to watch this season.
“We followed him for a while,” Arteta told Arsenal Media. “We needed a full back who could be very versatile, can play as a centre back, can play in a back three, Tomi has this capacity. He is 22 years old but he has some really good experience in Serie A and at international level and with the qualities we are looking for.”
Arsenal are currently lying at the bottom of the Premier League table, collecting zero points from three matches. However, on Thursday, Arsenal defeated Brentford 4-0 in a behind-closed-doors friendly. When asked about how valuable a game it was, Mikel Arteta said, “Yes we had the possibility to play Brentford again and we had quite a lot of players who needed some minutes, some of them coming back from injuries, some of them after Covid, so it was a good test and a good work-out.”
Speaking about defenders Ben White and Gabriel featuring in the match, he said, “Yeah, really good. We don’t have any big injuries as well, they have the minutes, we could work on some things, so it was a good idea to play the game.”
On working with players in the international break, the manager added, “Yeah, again because some of them are coming back from injuries, some of them that had Covid and could not travel with the national team, so we worked with them.”
