Mikel Arteta believes new Champions League format is making January transfer signings more difficult | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta believes the new format of the UEFA Champions League has affected clubs’ transfer activity in January.

The Gunners’ 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb leaves them third in the new league phase with one game remaining.

However, this season’s format allows for more jeopardy on the final game of the round as all teams play at the same time next week.

Arsenal remain “active’ in the market“, and Arteta admits the fate of the Champions League teams going down to the wire so close to the closure of the transfer window is causing issues in bringing players in, given the uncertainty as to whether they will still be in the competition.

“I think one [reason] is because there is a lot of uncertainty still over who is going to qualify and what do you need in the last game,” he said. “So it leaves it open. I think probably for the public it’s very interesting.

“And the other factor is, yes, that we are still at the end of the market, it is open and a lot of competitions are running and with a lot of uncertainty for certain clubs especially. So it makes it a little bit harder.”

Pressed if this makes it a little bit harder or significantly harder, the Spaniard replied, “For us, it is probably a little bit but for the rest of them the same.”

While Arteta leaves the transfers to interim sporting director Jason Ayto and others, on the pitch he is in pursuit of Liverpool in the Premier League title race and is doing so without Bukayo Saka.

However, in his absence, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard have stepped up.

In their last six Premier League matches, Martineli has scored three goals, and Trossard has one goal and three assists.

“Normally all the front players have moments, and they have a high moment right now,” Arteta said about the duo. “They are in a really good moment confidence-wise, physically and they are contributing to the attacking phase in a really good way. So good to have that.

“It’s probably very difficult to expect players to have the same impact every three days, especially with the amount of games that they have to play.”