With the enforced pause on domestic European football now at an end following the conclusion of the first ever winter World Cup out in Qatar, Arsenal fans can turn their full attentions to the resumption of our 2022/23 Premier League campaign as we welcome local rivals West Ham United to the Emirates Stadium for the festive Boxing Day clash.
With a trip to Brighton and Hove Albion left to close out the month of December, we will then be into the New Year and it could well be a very interesting January transfer window for the club as manager Mikel Arteta looks to build on our very impressive start to the campaign, as we went into the break sitting pretty in top spot on 37 points with 12 wins from 14 games, and as football returns we continue to have a five point advantage over Manchester City and Pep Guardiola and even fans of https://www.slotozilla.com/uk/online-casinos probably would not have seen that coming.
Arteta has recently confirmed that the club does plan on being active next month, namely because of the injury sustained by striker and summer capture Gabriel Jesus. The 25 year old went into the World Cup with five goals and six assists following his transfer from Manchester City, but he unfortunately picked up a knee injury during the month whilst playing for Brazil at the tournament, and he is now ruled out for a while having undergone knee surgery.
Speaking to the BBC, Arteta said of the player and the improvements to the squad he still hoped to make.
“It’s going to take some time for sure. He’s gone through surgery and that tells you the extent of the injury, so we will be in the market, always active and we will assess the biggest opportunities we have. We are going to be active and active means we are looking to strengthen the team. This squad still doesn’t have the luxury of not maximising every single window. We have to do that because it’s really important, but then we have to get the right profile. It has to be the right player to take us to the next level.”
It will be a disappointing blow for Jesus as he has enjoyed a great start to life at Arsenal and more than hit the ground running with us. He would also have been hoping to help fire his country further on the world’s biggest stage, but he sustained the injury in their final Group G game, which became a 1-0 defeat against Cameroon for the side.
“It’s obviously a huge blow with Gabriel Jesus and his injury. We’ll miss him for a period of time. The season has challenges, this is a challenge we have to overcome, but if you’re going to be at the top there’s going to be those challenges. With Gabi it’s difficult to put a timeframe because it was a significant injury. Knowing him, I prefer not to give any dates.”
Fans will not like the lack of a time frame for recovery, as that does imply it could be quite a severe injury and may well effectively be season over for him, but with Arteta’s confirmation that the club will be seeking to be active in the window, fans can expect plenty of speculation in the media to follow on from that.
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