Mikel Arteta has conceded that Arsenal were beaten by the clock as he opened up on the club's failed attempts to strike a deal with Aston Villa for Douglas Luiz on deadline day.
The Gunners had seemingly wrapped up their transfer business well in advance of deadline day after splashing out on big-money deals for the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira, but recent injuries to Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny have left Arsenal light in midfield.
As a result, Arsenal tried to entice Aston Villa into doing a deal for Luiz, who has less than a year to run on his current deal and is set to become a free agent next summer.
However, the Londoners were unable to strike an agreement for the former Manchester City midfielder, who netted against the Gunners in Aston Villa's 2-1 defeat at the Emirates just 24 hours earlier.
And Arteta has admitted that the limited timeframe they had to try and clinch a deal after losing Elneny and Partey to injuries hampered prevented them from acquiring Luiz, who has been on the Gunners radar for some time.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Arteta said: "We pushed to strengthen the team and bring the best possible people and players to this football club. We have managed to a certain level. Time was a big limitation with what happened in the last 72 hours in our midfield."
Join the debate! Do you think that failing to sign a midfielder will come back to haunt Arsenal? Let us know here.
According to The Athletic, Arsenal launched three separate bids for Luiz on deadline day, but Villa stuck to their guns after insisting that the Brazilian was not for sale.
The Spaniard also elaborated on the time that the midfield duo are expected to miss as a result of their current injuries. While Arteta predicted that Partey could be back in action within weeks, the prognosis on Elneny is significantly worse, with the Gunners chief warning that Elneny is likely to be sidelined for "months".
Arteta also admitted that Zinchenko, a summer signing who was tipped to fill a midfield role after joining from Manchester City, is still not training after picking up an injury.
He did sound more hopeful on club captain Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale, who both appeared to pick up issues in the slender win over Aston Villa.
Although the duo are still being assessed, it is hoped that the duo will be available for this weekend, where Arsenal face their toughest test of the season yet when they travel to a Manchester United side who have recovered from a nightmare start to the season by winning three games on the spin under their new boss, Erik ten Hag.
