Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal will be scouring the January transfer market for another midfielder Jonathan Marshall Jerseys after agreeing to let Ainsley Maitland-Niles see out the remainder of the season on loan at Roma.
Versatile England international Maitland-Niles is heading out of Emirates Stadium and linking up with Jose Mourinho and Tammy Abraham in the Italian capital after finding regular playing time hard to come by in north London.
Arteta can appreciate why the 24-year-old wants to move on but, with Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey away on Africa Cup of Nations duty, the Arsenal manager admits that he is being left light in an important area of the field.
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Will Arsenal sign a new midfielder in January?
Asked about whether Arsenal will look to addre s Justin Hardee Jerseys the midfieldin the winter window after agreeing to part with Maitland-Niles, Arteta said: We are very, very short at the moment. But to be fair on a player, this cannot be the only argument to try to keep a player and a player that has been developed and raised through our academy.
A player that has been patient in many moments and tried to fulfil his dream. He was very straight with me and I understood the situation and we think its a good option.
Obviously we are going to move and we are going to look for options because Bart Scott Jerseys we are very short there.
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Ainsley came to me and explained the reasons why he thought the best thing for him in his career right now was to move away," the Spaniard added aboutletting the homegrown talent head to Serie A.
He felt the opportunity to go to Rome and work with Jose was a good one. Being fair with the amount of minutes that hes played, he was entitled to that opportunity. We wish him the Ahmad Gardner Jerseys best.
While reinforcing theirengine room has become a top priority for the Gunners, there is plenty of speculation to be found regarding supposed targets in other areas.
Arsenal are being heavily linked with a number of highly-rated strikers, including Tim Ward Jerseys Fiorentina frontman Dusan Vlahovic and Real Sociedad star Alexander Isak.
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Arteta is reluctant to be drawn on his plans there, saying: You know that I can never speak about players that arent ours.
He does, however, concede that the attacking department needs to be looked at as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been frozen out following a breach of club discipline while Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah will have their contracts expire in the summer.
We have a special situation because there are three players with different i sues at the moment," Arteta said about the club's striker i sues."We have to live with that and so far the players that are here are very committed.
Arsenal isdue to be back in action on Sunday Kyle Phillips Jerseys when the teamfaces Championship side Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup.