(Football news) Arsenal have been a little busy in the transfer window but they've only made sales and haven't bought anyone. They let 5 players leave the club and didn't sign anyone which leaves them with only 22 first team players. Some of the players were deadwood but a couple of sales could've been avoided at least till the summer.

Sead Kolasinac who is practically their 3rd choice left back joined Marseille. Arsenal let him go for free despite him having a contract till the end of the season. Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent out on loan to AS Roma till the end of the season. He has wanted to leave the Gunners in search of regular game time which he wasn't getting at Arsenal. The timing of it was very wrong because Arsenal sent him out despite two of their midfielders going to the African Cup of Nations. Maitland-Niles is a very flexible player who can play as a fullback on either side and in midfield. Letting him go could be a bad decision especially if any of their full back or midfielder suffers a long term injury.

Another versatile player that left the club was Callum Chambers who can play centre back, right back and defensive midfield. Towards the end of last season, Chambers had become the regular right back but the position is now taken by Takehiro Tomiyasu. The signing of Ben White further pushed him down the pecking order as he has made only 2 league appearances this season. He has been sold to Aston Villa for free. Pablo Mari is another centre back who left Arsenal on loan for Udinese. 

The big one was star striker and former club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. After a recurring disciplinary issue, the Gabonese was stripped from captaincy and was exiled from the squad. Arsenal terminated his contract and he has signed a deal with Barcelona. Now Arsenal are really short of strikers with Alexander Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah being the only natural number nines. Arsenal didn't sign any sort of replacement for Aubameyang.

The only signing Arsenal made was that of Auston Trusty from Colorado. Trusty will spend the rest of the season on loan at his former club. The only other player Arsenal was linked with was Dusan Vlahovic. The Fiorentina striker firmly rejected advances from Arsenal and a few other Premier League clubs and joined Juventus for £63m. There was no other player Arsenal tried to sign which is very worrying for them as they are pretty much in the top four race. Rivals Tottenham on the other hand have gone big and signed Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski from Juventus. 

Arsenal are one serious injury to an important player away from crisis. The good thing is that they only have the Premier League to focus on as they are out of both domestic cups and do not have any European fixtures. Mikel Arteta has to be really careful with injuries as Arsenal will also have fixture constraints due to the postponed games.
 

Also read: How much will the failure to offload Ousmane Dembele affect Barcelona?