Mikel Arteta delivers Arsenal Deadline Day promise amid Cristhian Mosquera injury update


Mikel Arteta confirmed Cristhian Mosquera is "fine" after he was forced off in Arsenal's win over Aston Villa as he promised the Gunners would be ready to “improve” their squad on Deadline Day.
The Gunners won 1-0 at Villa Park to maintain their perfect start to the Premier League season, with Bukayo Saka's second-half finish enough for all three points.
Mosquera played a key role in that goal, playing the pass through the lines to open up space for Eberechi Eze and Riccardo Calafiori, but he came off with ten minutes of normal time remaining after holding the back of his leg.
That led to Ezri Konsa coming on for his debut against his former club, but Arteta eased fears of a significant problem for Mosquera.
"He is fine," Arteta said. "But he was feeling like he was about to have something.
"That's why we have the bench that we have, that's why we had to bring Ezri on."
Arsenal's victory over Villa came 24 hours before the summer transfer window shuts.
The Gunners are still open to strengthening further in attack, with Lyon's Malick Fofana the latest player to be considered.
"We are trying to improve the squad, and until tomorrow night we're going to try to do that," Arteta said.
"I've been disconnected from the world for 24 hours, because I think my energy and focus has to be on the match, and I will get back on it now."
Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira are all expected to complete moves away from Arsenal on Deadline Day, while Ethan Nwaneri is attracting significant loan interest.
Asked if he was confident that Arsenal had enough options in forward areas even with those departures, Arteta responded: "It depends if everybody's fit or not.
"We can talk about today, but that scenario might change. We knew that with Willy [Saliba] out, we had an injury in the back line. We knew we were in big trouble, so we had to do everything.
"And today, Mosquera, he could not continue. So we know that the depth has to be really big when you're fighting for four competitions, in the manner that we play as well. So we're going to try to do that."
