Mikel Arteta has opened up on Arsenal's transfer plans for the closing days of the January transfer window.
The Gunners have let Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Flo Balogun, Sead Kolasinac and Pablo Mari leave the club, but are still yet to have brought anyone in with just over a week remaining.
The lack of depth was felt keenly during Sunday's 0-0 draw with Burnley where the only senior attacking player available to Arteta on the bench was 22-year-old Eddie Nketiah.
In the aftermath of that game, the Arsenal manager has emphasised that his club will be in the market for recruits in the next few days of the window.
"Well we are certainly trying," the Spaniard said. "But I don’t know if we are going to be able to do it. Let’s see.
"It’s not only our intention but a lot of facts that are needed to happen."
The forward and midfield areas are the particular areas where it appears the Gunners are struggling most for depth at the moment with Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey both being suspended for Sunday's draw, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang again not involved, leaving the misfiring Alexandre Lacazette to start again.
football.london understands that Arsenal are still hopeful of securing deals for Juventus' Arthur Melo and Dusan Vlahovic of Fiorentina to remedy this issue.
Arteta admitted that he would only be looking to bring players in to the Emirates who he felt would be an improvement on what he already had.
"We have to make the right decisions with players that we believe are really going to help us, and try to bring as well the ones that are going to take us to the next level," he said.
"Players that come here it has to be to take us to the next level," the Spaniard then went on to add.
"We already have a level and we want to see much better standards than we already have. That’s the standard we want to recruit."
