Arsenal can repeat Jorginho’s transfer masterstroke to solve problem raised by Mikel Arteta | Football | sport

Arsenal could consider adding experience to Mikel Arteta’s squad in January after the Gunners boss accepted his players need to “fix” disciplinary issues. William Saliba received the club’s third red card in eight games when he was given his marching orders against Bournemouth.

The centre-back followed Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard and was released for entirely avoidable reasons. Trossard’s poor back pass put Saliba in trouble as the Frenchman brought down Evanilson, who was judged to be wide of goal.

Arteta has argued that all three scenarios are relatively different, although Rice and Trossard were shown red cards on a similar principle – second yellow cards for delaying the restart.

“Playing with 10 men is obviously a problem,” he explained. “If you analyze the three different actions and the results, it is very different. We can’t continue playing with ten players. The task becomes almost impossible. We have to eliminate that.”

Arsenal have generally focused on signing younger players with the aim of developing them into big stars. However, Arteta and sporting director Edu may want to scrap that plan for January.

In a title fight that will likely once again come down to the wire, Arsenal cannot afford to lose players to cheap red cards. They may need new signings in the form of Jorginho, an experienced and skilful midfielder who was purchased from Chelsea in January 2023.

Although the Italian is not a guaranteed starter, his leadership in Arsenal’s young squad has been hugely valuable. Arteta needs players who are able to keep a cool head and not make critical mistakes in highly emotional moments.

Rice echoed those sentiments after Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth, telling Sky Sports: “The fact is we’ve kicked ourselves in the foot three times in eight games this season. “We got away with it twice, at home against Brighton and away against City. It doesn’t always happen that you get lucky.”

The midfielder added: “The naive thing is that we have to stop making mistakes because we want to have 11 players for 90 minutes. “That’s how you win football games. That’s how I see it today.”

January is a difficult window for clubs to make important signings, particularly older players on bigger contracts. But with Manchester City and Liverpool giving them a leg up in the Premier League title race, Arsenal will need to be near perfect to finish at the top this season. Therefore, you need more experience.