Latest Injury Blows Mean Arsene Wenger Must Use Arsenal January Transfer Budget

With both Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Debuchy going under the knife, Arsenal have lost a significant amount of experience and quality in the defensive third of the field. The Gunners were already chasing reinforcements, but the situation just became critical. 

Wenger makes a habit of using the club’s official website to deliver a team news bulletin on a Thursday. Rarely have his updates been quite so distressing. After delivering the news that Arteta would miss the next three months, Wenger delivered a similarly problematic prognosis about right-back Mathieu Debuchy. 

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Mathieu had a surgery on his right shoulder following the injury on Sunday. It's very unfortunate for Mathieu, it's unbelievable because he's had two surgeries in the same season. He just came back, he played seven games and he's out again. I count three months out for Mathieu because contact will be a problem for the shoulder. 

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Three months would see the pair return in mid-March. Given that it will take them time to regain match sharpness, and the propensity of Arsenal players to suffer set-backs during rehabilitation, it’s possible we may not see Arteta or Debuchy figure significantly before the end of the season. 

Wenger went on to admit that the injury news means he is now more focused than ever on recruiting players in January: 

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Yes we are more [in the market now]. We have Calum Chambers and we have Hector Bellerin, who is coming on well, and I want to give them a chance as well, but of course we are in the market like many other clubs.

We work really hard morning until late night to try to get one or two players in.

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Arsenal’s need is now acute. Wenger is right to name-check Chambers and Bellerin, who have both shown promise as potential Debuchy replacements. However, if Chambers is deployed at right-back, that means Arsenal will have even less cover at centre-half. Experienced cover for Laurent Kosicelny becomes all the more essential.

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In midfield, Arsenal have another promising player in the combative form of Francis Coquelin. However, like Bellerin and Chambers, he is relatively inexperienced—especially at elite level. It is unfair to expect him to anchor the midfield for the remainder of the season in Arteta’s absence.

Arsenal have lost two of their leaders. They can’t rely on rookie squad players to replace them.

Wenger already knows that if he doesn’t recruit in these areas in January, he will need to in the summer. He has been chasing a new centre-half for more than a year. Coquelin’s contract expires this summer, as does that of Mathieu Flamini. A holding midfielder will be required sooner rather than later. 

January is a notoriously difficult time at which to buy, but Wenger must do everything in his power to try and bring any potential deals forward. Last summer, we saw evidence that Arsenal are prepared to be bullish in the transfer market when required: they executed deals for Chambers, Alexis Sanchez and David Ospina swiftly and efficiently. There was no extended haggling over price—they simply paid what was necessary to get the deal done. 

That’s what Arsenal need to do in the remaining two weeks of the window. Wenger may have hoped he could manage his way to the end of the season without opening his chequebook, but the injury situation has robbed him of that option. Failing to spend would put Arsenal’s top four place in unnecessary jeopardy.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and is following the club from a London base throughout the 2014-15 season. Follow him on Twitter here.