As the 2022 World Cup will take centre stage for the next six weeks, it means Premier League teams can already begin to finalise any plans for the January transfer window.
Domestic football resumes just two days after the World Cup final for those in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, but Arsenal will return to action on Boxing Day with a London derby against West Ham United before ending the year with a trip to Brighton and Hove Albion.
And by the time the Gunners welcome Newcastle United to the Emirates Stadium on January 3, the transfer window for Premier League teams will have been officially open for three days. But will there be any new additions to Mikel Arteta's matchday squad for that particular fixture?
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History indicates that won't be the case. Since being appointed, initially as the Arsenal head coach in December 2019, the Spaniard has overseen three winter transfer windows and all five deals for the first-team players he has signed have been completed with around 10 days to go until deadline day.
His first signing was Pablo Mari who joined on loan from Flamengo on January 29, Cedric Soares was next through the door two days later. The following year saw Mat Ryan and Martin Odegaard complete loan deals on January 22 and January 27 respectively, whilst at the beginning of this year, the signing of Auston Trusty caught many by surprise on deadline day.
Looking back at the business Arsenal have done in January under Arteta and it's a case of the first-team squad being trimmed rather than it being strengthened. For example, in 2021, Mesut Ozil, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi mutually terminated their contracts and Matt Macey joined Hibernian.
Furthermore, that same window saw Sead Kolasinac, William Saliba, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock seal loan moves to Schalke, Nice, West Brom and Newcastle United respectively having not played much football, if at all, during the first half of the 2020/21 season.
Then almost 12 months ago, six senior players were allowed to leave either permanently or on loan with two notable deals occurring before and after the window officially closed, with Calum Chambers joining Aston Villa and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leaving the club by mutual consent.
However, after Arsenal's transfer policy was effectively reset in the summer of 2021 as Arteta and technical director Edu adopted a new, but ruthless, approach, to overhaul the squad, there could be another shift with regard to how the upcoming January transfer window is treated as they can perhaps look at incomings instead of outgoings.
One look at the Gunners' senior squad and it's only Marquinhos - potentially Cedric Soares too - that could do with a loan spell in the new year as he's not played much football since the opening two Europa League group phase fixtures.
Regardless of what decision is taken with the young Brazilian, it's worth keeping in mind that Arsenal are in a great position heading into the January transfer window and considering the backlog of fixtures to be played in 2023, having a deeper squad will be vital and Arteta can't afford to be short of options in a key area.
With that said, all signs are pointing towards the north London outfit being active this winter - and for a change the focus seems to be on adding to the squad: "Of course we can improve the team, we will always be looking to do that as a club," the Spaniard said this month.
"I don't know [if we will be busy in January], this window is so unpredictable. Especially with the World Cup in the middle. We will have a look, we will try to get the squad stronger and we will be active because you don't know what's going to happen in that World Cup, but touch wood they will all be OK."
So with only one realistic first-team departure left - albeit a temporary one - perhaps a decision will be made to speed up the Youri Tielemans transfer rather than wait another six months, or Arsenal will go back in for midfielder Danilo in January or a £90million deal for winger Mykhaylo Mudryk will be completed.
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