Mikel Arteta reveals Arsenal January transfer plans as Andrea Berta sent market instruction

Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has dropped a perhaps unexpected hint on his side's plans for the January transfer window ahead of its imminent opening.

Thanks in no small part to their £250m summer outlay, the Gunners hold a two-point advantage at the top of the Premier League table and will enter 2026 at the summit if they overcome Aston Villa on Tuesday.

While Arsenal forked out an unprecedented amount on new signings, the North London giants raised a paltry £12m through sales, only offloading Nuno Tavares, Marquinhos and Albert Sambi Lokonga on permanent deals.

The Gunners are still compliant with Premier League and UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules but are treading closer to the line, suggesting that the January window would be a relatively quiet one as Arteta aims to keep his tight-knit squad together.

However, speaking to the press before facing Villa on Tuesday, Arteta has stressed that his side will be 'actively looking' for opportunities to improve in January, as his side have suffered more injury blows than initially anticipated.

Mikel Arteta: 'Arsenal will be actively looking in January window'

"We're going to be really aware of the situation and the timescale of certain players [returning from injury]," Arteta said. "If you go from the front line to the back line, that's the depth that you need. When you look across the other clubs, they have 24 or 25 players, so there's nothing special in our squad.

“The thing is, we’ve had more injuries than expected, some of them not avoidable, I would say, but we want to be better, and we know how important the part of having the right availability with players is going to play in the season.

“The window is there. We're Arsenal and we have to be looking at it and saying ‘OK, what do we need?’ We have to be actively looking, and then can we do it or not? That's a different story, but our job is to always be very prepared because something can happen."

Arsenal are rumoured to have their eye on one centre-back in the shape of Rennes 20-year-old Jeremy Jacquet, although his long-running contract until 2029 and competition from Liverpool will make a January deal difficult.

The Gunners have also been linked with a few young midfielders in Rodrigo Mendoza, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Darryl Bakola, but they are not actively pursuing Bournemouth's Antoine Semenyo, who is edging closer to a move to Manchester City.

Mikel Arteta comments on possible Arsenal January departures

Despite raising little through player sales in the summer, Arsenal are not expected to green-light any high-profile departures over the winter, although Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly may generate loan interest.

Neither academy graduate has played a key role in the first team this season, and Lewis-Skelly in particular could attract the attention of other Premier League clubs while he fights for his England World Cup place.

However, Arteta kept his cards customarily close to his chest when asked about possible exits during the season, adding: "Again, we assess every situation.

"I leave that much more to Andrea [Berta] to understand what's happening in the market and then the individual players obviously. We have to assess where we are with each of them and get the best situation."

Arsenal have supposedly already decided to sell one of their left-wingers in 2026, but an exit for the player in question is more likely in the summer than the January window.