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Declan Rice is joined by new Arsenal player in calls for club spending as transfer clock ticks down

Martin Odegaard has joined Declan Rice and Mikel Arteta in giving his view on Arsenal's January transfer need.
-Credit:Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images


It is obvious that those at the forefront of the Arsenal picture are not hiding the desire to see deals done by the club. Mikel Arteta has been asked continually about the potential of adding a striker to the group.

The injury to Gabriel Jesus didn’t change the stance of wanting to reinforce but it certainly increased the urgency to which it is needed. Having suffered an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament, the expectation is he will be missing for a considerable period of time.

When asked by Rio Ferdinand on TNT Sports about the desire to add a striker Arteta said, “Yes, for sure.” The Gunners boss added: “Because we lost two players, big players, Bukayo [Saka], who can be out for up to three months, that’s a long time, and Gabby, who is going to be out for a long, long, long time.”

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Declan Rice was outspoken when asked about the idea of adding a forward, “I think now where we’ve lost Gabi (Gabriel Jesus), he’s probably going to be out for a year with an ACL, that’s really tough,” he said. “I’m sure the manager is probably going to look for something, because tonight we’ve had to bring Tierney on left wing, we’ve had to bring Zin (Oleksandr Zinchenko) in on left wing so we’re a bit short up there, I’m not surprised if we are going to do something.”

However, so far nothing has happened and despite links to both Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha, there is no understanding that anything is advanced on those fronts or another deal. The window may extend through until February 3, but that should not give the club reason to rest.

Now Martin Odegaard is the latest player to have his say on the number of players available right now. Admitting after the win over Dinamo Zagreb that the side is short before returning to praising the existing players in the group.

“To be honest, I think with injuries we've been a little bit short," Odegaard said. "But if you look at the team, we have so much quality. If we can keep everyone fit, then that's the main thing.

"We have to focus on the players that are here and we have a lot of quality. So yeah, happy with the ones that we have and they did well today."

Arsenal face Wolves this weekend, before a trip to Girona and then host Manchester City at the start of next month before the window closes. Any new signing could be in with a chance of facing City with the title rivals of the past two seasons having spent big themselves during this winter market.