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Mikel Arteta has defended the “very clear” approach Arsenal took in the January transfer window, despite offering a difference of opinion to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Arsenal will be taking on Wolves away at Molineux on Thursday night. They are looking to halt a run of five games without a win across all competitions. There has been the best part of three weeks for Arsenal to prepare for this match, which is their first since the January transfer window closed.

Arsenal’s main piece of business was offloading former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Barcelona. A few fringe players also departed, but there were no senior signings for the here and now.

The Aubameyang exit has caused some controversy after his disciplinary issues. Some have felt the striker was treated unfairly, whereas others believe he took one step too far.

The Gabon international has since described Arteta as a problem, but his former manager has a different take.

Arteta told a press conference: “I’m extremely grateful for what Auba has done at the club since I’ve been here. The way I see myself in that relationship is the solution and not the problem.”

Of Aubameyang’s comments, he replied: “That’s his opinion. We have to respect that.”

Arsenal are now seeing the season out with just two strikers after failing to sign a replacement. Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are both out of contract at the end of the season but have a lot of responsibility to share until then.

Arteta said: “Well we have two strikers. We have Laca, we have Eddie with us. They are both capable of scoring goals.”

The manager also confirmed Lacazette has, for the time being, succeeded Aubameyang as captain. He then went on to defend their approach in the transfer market.

Although their squad is now thinner, Arteta was against panic buying. As such, he felt they made the right decisions.

He explained: “We did what we believed was the right thing to do. The squad composition and contracts were catching up, be fair with players who haven’t had a lot of minutes.

“We had a clear plan of what we can do but then it has to be doable. Edu and his team have done a great job.

“We are very clear we only want the best people and the best players at this club. When we are in a rush and the reasons to get a player on board are not the right ones we didn’t do it.”

In one specific example, Arteta denied he would have kept Folarin Balogun – who is now on loan with Middlesbrough – if he knew what was coming with Aubameyang.

He said: “Again with Flo especially and the amount of minutes that he played here it was not fair. If we want to develop that player and maximise his potential we have to expose that player to the level he needs to be exposed.”

Arteta provides Tomiyasu update

As Arsenal prepare to return to action, Arteta was asked about the availability of defender Takehiro Tomiyasu.

The Japan international has been recovering from a calf injury. He was reportedly absent from their recent training trip to the United Arab Emirates.

Arteta is not yet sure if he will be able to call on him for the Wolves match, but can confirm he has been back in training.

The manager said: “He’s there. He had a recurring injury so we had to be careful with him.

“He’s been training hard. Let’s see if he’s available for Thursday.”

After their elimination from both domestic cup competitions in January, Arsenal are now fully focusing on their remaining 17 league games.

Currently sixth in the table, they are aiming to return to European football. But Arteta knows it will be difficult if they don’t sort their discipline issues out.

Looking back on January’s disappointments, he said: “For different reasons we didn’t get the results. The performance against [Manchester] City and Burnley were very different.

“We played three games out of five with 10 men. If we continue to do that in the next 17 games our chances will be really low. We also had a lot of injuries and COVID as well.”

READ MORE: Arsenal facing bitter double transfer blow if Arteta can’t deliver one demand

The post ‘Not the problem’ – Arteta contrasts Aubameyang view of transfer saga as Arsenal business defended appeared first on TEAMtalk.