Gunners back Arteta with funds Mikel Arteta

LONDON. – Arsenal will provide newly-appointed manager Mikel Arteta with transfer funds this month to plug their leaky defence.

Money is limited following three seasons without Champions League football, but the club will back Arteta with cash when the January window reopens today — with the Gunners prioritising a centreback.

Red Bull Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano is high on the list of the club’s central defensive targets and the German side could be persuaded to let him leave due to the fact his contract expiring.

He could be available for as little as £40 million.

Arteta is, meanwhile, facing a huge battle to try to convince Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to stay at Arsenal past the end of this season with doubts growing over his long-term future.

Aubameyang has promised to give everything for new head coach Arteta while he is at the club, as he proved with a goal and a committed performance in the defeat to Chelsea.

The 30-year-old’s effort was all the more pleasing for Arteta, as the Arsenal head coach is aware that the Gabon international would rather play through the middle than out on the left-hand side.

Having been handed the captaincy, Aubameyang is willing to put the team over himself in the immediate future, but his long-term prospects are far less certain.

He has 18 months remaining on his contract and is desperate to play Champions League football again. That is looking increasingly unlikely to happen at Arsenal next season, even though the club still believe they have time to qualify.

The defeat to Chelsea left Arsenal down in 12th place in the Premier League table, 11 points behind their fourth-placed rivals. Arteta’s team entertain fifth-placed Manchester United next and failure to win would further dent any slim hope of making ground on their rivals.

Arsenal are still in the Europa League, which offers a route to the Champions League for the winners, but Aubameyang currently looks destined to leave the Emirates at the end of the season.

Having joined from Borussia Dortmund two years ago for a then club record fee of £56 million, Aubameyang has already worked under four different coaches, Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery, Freddie Ljungberg and now Arteta, at Arsenal with no discernible progress being made.

Arteta is also fighting to try to keep wantaway midfielder Granit Xhaka at Arsenal, with the club adamant they would want more than the £25,6 million that Hertha Berlin are reported to have offered at the end of a six-month loan.

Despite his desire to try to convince Xhaka to stay, Arteta has already started to look for midfield reinforcements for January and may be forced to search for a new defender if Calum Chambers is ruled out for a long period.

Arsenal are thought to currently be looking at the loan market, with Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot among the players to have been identified.

But sources doubt that Juventus will agree to loan out Rabiot for six months, even though the France international has struggled to make an impact since his free transfer switch from Paris Saint-Germain.

David Luiz has backed Arteta to restore Arsenal to their position among England’s top clubs, but admitted the team must quickly adapt to his philosophy to save their season.

“We have to try to improve ourselves as soon as possible because this club deserves to shine again,” said Luiz.

“They made the right choice with Arteta, he will be one of the best coaches in the world for sure because he knows football, he understands football.

“He’s trying to improve our team with some field training. We’re going to try to do our best. The first half everybody saw an amazing thing. The second half, Chelsea were better than us.”

On Arteta’s influence, Luiz added: “He just came now and he’s trying to improve the team.

He’s trying to make a new philosophy.

I think everybody saw that in the first half, we dominated the game and we should have scored the second goal. It would have been a different game.

“In the process, Chelsea are in front of us, they had a pre-season together with the same philosophy and coach. It’s up to us to improve ourselves, we need to get some points, some results. We need to understand the stage of the season we’re in now. We have to take the positives and improve the negative things.”- Mailonline.

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