Mikel Arteta reacts to Arsenal’s failed pursuit of Douglas Luiz

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has opened up on his side’s deadline-day pursuit of Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz which was eventually all to no avail.

Having already signed Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner and Marquinhos, Arsenal appeared to have wrapped up their summer business before late injuries to Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny left the North Londoners a little light in the middle of the park.

Consequently, Arsenal targeted a late move for Douglas Luiz and were believed to have made up to three proposals for the Brazilian, all of which were rejected by Villa.

Speaking ahead of his side’s heavyweight meeting against Manchester United this weekend, the Arsenal boss has reflected on his team’s failure to acquire the services of a new midfielder before the transfer window shut yesterday night.

“We had a lot of things still to do in the squad,” Arteta was quoted saying by GOAL.

“The club has done a phenomenal job to bring in players that we wanted.

“Unfortunately in the last 72 hours Thomas [Partey] and Mo [Elneny] got injured and we had to react in the market.

“We tried and at the end of the day we have to bring in the players we feel are right but we didn’t manage to do it.”

Off the back of five straight wins to kick off the 2022/23 season, Arsenal prepare for what is set to be arguably their toughest assignment so far not only due to the calibre of the opposition but also the Gunners’ injury report at the moment.

As earlier mentioned, Partey and Elneny will miss the game at Old Trafford but the Premier League leaders may also be without the services of up to three other first-team players with Aaron Ramsdale, Zinchenko and Martin Odegaard all major doubts for Sunday’s contest.