Mikel Arteta expects Arsenal to be active on transfer deadline day

By Jonathan Veal, Press Association

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta will turn his attention back to the transfer market after seeing his side make it two wins out of two with a 1-0 Premier League success at Aston Villa.

Bukayo Saka’s second-half strike was enough for the defending champions to shade a tight contest at Villa Park.

But with the transfer window shutting at 11pm on Tuesday, Arteta is keen to add some attacking depth, with the Gunners linked with a move for Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez.

Arteta said: “I said, we are trying to improve the squad, and until tomorrow night we’re going to try to do that.

“I’ve been disconnected from the world for 24 hours because I think my energy and focus has to be on the match.

“I will get back on it now.

“We know that the depth has to be really big when you are fighting for four competitions in the manner that we play as well.

“So we’re going to try to do that.”

It was far from a vintage performance by Arsenal, but they got the job done in a manner that characterised their title success last season.

One of the low points of that campaign was a late 2-1 defeat at Villa Park in December and Arteta used that as fuel.

“That was still in my tummy, and I spoke to the players about it,” he said.

“That image when the players were on the floor, totally gutted, it was a really difficult one to take, and we used that to bring energy, to bring more conviction and belief, to understand the difficulty of the challenge that we had ahead, especially against a team that was so successful last year.

“Today when we have to suffer, we did suffer, and when we have to be really dominant, we were. So I’m really pleased.”

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It was a second successive defeat for Villa, but there were positive signs after a summer of squad upheaval.

They have lost Ezri Konsa, who was booed on his Villa Park return, Morgan Rogers, Emiliano Martinez, Ollie Watkins, Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans, but they have recruited heavily as well.

Striker Nicolas Jackson made his debut while imminent arrivals Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Ibrahim Mbaye watched from the stands ahead of signing before the transfer deadline.

Emery does not expect much more business beyond that, confirming that Tammy Abraham had turned down the chance to leave on loan.

“I am not expecting more. Last year, until the deadline we were focusing because we needed to do something,” Emery said.

“But this year I think everything we were preparing for the changes we did.

“I think we are replacing the players like we planned.

“We will try to work tomorrow to work for the next match, joining more players (who) hopefully should be available to play and try to have a good, a deep squad for the challenges we will face this year.”

Asked if he was happy with how the transfer window has gone, he said: “Yes, definitely. I am happy.”