The Gunners boss is looking to lower the age of his squad, but there is also pressure on him to turn around poor results as soon as possible
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is unmoved by critics of his transfer policy at Emirates Stadium and is convinced he is building a winning team, despite the Gunners' recent struggles.
The club has focused on youth in the current window, with Aaron Ramsdale becoming the fifth player under the age of 23 to sign for the first team on Friday following the arrivals of Ben White, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Martin Odegaard.
Arteta is also in need of immediate success, as last week's defeat to Brentford piled on the pressure following a disappointing 2020-21 campaign.
What was said?
"We have to be sustainable," Arteta explained to Sky Sports. "We have to perform now and we also need a plan for the medium and the long term.
"A lot of the decisions we have made over the last 18 months are because we had a big imbalance in certain areas that was putting the club in a difficult position.
"Then, we wanted to recruit talent, specificity, and players with a big capacity to interact with the players who already exist here and who could develop into potential starters and increase the level of the team and the squad."
"I've been in constant contact with the hierarchy of the club, with Eddy [Edu], with Richard [Garlick] and with our coaching team, trying to find the players we want to recruit and trying to be on top of every deal to make it happen in conditions we can afford.
"I think we have created a really strong team who really enjoy working together. Hopefully you will see the fruits of this."
No time to lose
Having missed out on Europe altogether last time round, though, finishing a lowly eighth in the Premier League, the onus will be on Arteta to accompany his rebuilding efforts with signs of positive short-term progress.
The Gunners host European champions Chelsea on Sunday and defeat would leave them rooted to the bottom of the table with zero points after two games.
"We have had seven departures from the side that we had last year, maybe eight," Arteta added. "With five coming in, we are talking already about a turnaround of 13 players, so it's huge.
"We are just trying to have the best quality and balance that we possibly can. It's about increasing the quality and having a healthy squad, which is really important as well."