Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta knows all about the hype that comes with transfer deadline day.
Since his appointment back in December 2019, the Spaniard has experienced as many as six of these during his time in charge of the Gunners. Very soon, he will have overseen a seventh, with January 31st the final opportunity to add to his first-team squad until the summer.
And just as has been the case with regard to several deadline days as Arsenal manager, Arteta has reached this stage having made significant signings with deals completed for Leandro Trossard and Jakub Kiwior either side of last weekend's 3-2 win over Manchester United.
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With the latest deadline day fast approaching and concerns that Mohamed Elneny's knee injury could keep him out for the remainder of the season, Arteta has revealed that he would ideally like to sign a new midfielder amid links to Moises Caicedo, Ibrahima Bamba and Martin Zubimendi.
"Well, we need some more cover in midfield ideally if we can. In this market it’s pretty complicated to do that," he told football.london ahead of his side's 1-0 defeat against Manchester City.
If, in a dream scenario, Arsenal were to sign one of the aforementioned midfielders - or spring a surprise like with Fabio Vieira last summer and more recently with Kiwior, then supporters will have every reason to remain optimistic about lasting the distance in the Premier League title race.
Going by deadline days in 2020, 2021 and 2022 specifically, then there's every chance the Gunners will be busy on Tuesday as Arteta has completed as many as 14 deals for first-team players on the final day of a transfer window - whether that be in the summer or in January.
Of those deals, however, only four have been incomings. Cedric Soares and Thomas Partey completed their moves to north London across the two windows in 2020, Takehiro Tomiyasu was a deadline day signing in the summer of 2021 and a year ago Auston Trusty's arrival caught many off guard.
Interestingly, looking back on Arsenal's activity on deadline day under Arteta and the focus has largely been on trimming the first-team squad. For example, a couple of years ago Shkodran Mustafi was allowed to join Schalke on a free transfer after reaching an agreement to cancel his contract, whilst Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock joined West Brom and Newcastle United on loan respectively.
If anything, because Spaniard and sporting director Edu Gaspar have previously sanctioned a deadline day exit for those in need of minutes, it would suggest that there could be a few announcements regarding outgoings before 11pm on Tuesday and most likely loan moves.
But when taking into consideration that Hector Bellerin, Maitland-Niles, Trusty, Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno, Pablo Mari, Nicolas Pepe, Nuno Tavares, Folarin Balogun, Runar Alex Runarsson and Arthur Okonkwo all left in the summer either temporarily or permanently, the only realistic first-team departures left are Cedric and potentially Marquinhos.
Therefore the fact that Arteta has signed a player on four of the six deadline days he has experienced could be an indication that Arsenal supporters can expect at least one more new arrival this month. Perhaps a Caicedo will join or a decision will be made to complete the Ivan Fresneda transfer and loan him back to Real Valladolid for the rest of the season?
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