Every Arsenal fan around the globe was hoping that manager Mikel Arteta and the board would really push the boat out during the January transfer window to give us the best chance possible of chasing down Arne Slot's Liverpool side in the battle for the 2024/25 Premier League title, but there are no two ways about it, the New Year opportunity turned into a bit of a damp squib for us.

With Manchester City's fall from grave this year as Pep Guardiola has seen his reigning champions really struggle, there has probably never been a better chance for us to take advantage under our Spanish gaffer, yet as we head towards the midway point in February we find ourselves six points behind the Anfield outlet, and they also hold a game in hand on us. Many fans will use the growing popularity of online casino sites as a means of winding down after a game, and for the latest options you can visit their website here if you are interested in that sort of thing.

The race for the title is far from over though, but with everybody focused on the number of draws we have already picked up and the relative lack of punch we are now carrying at the top of the pitch, even Arteta was happy to state that a top priority for us during the window was a new striker - and the speculation rumour mill gave us plenty of options, not least a very late move for Aston Villa and England striker Ollie Watkins.

However, despite all the talk by the end of deadline day we had done the square root of Football Association when the window 'slammed shut' and the squad was in no way improved in the way it needed to be.

Some are now obviously questioning whether the Edu departure hit us harder than we tried to pretend it had given how quiet we ended up being, but despite Arteta doing his best to reassure fans we were active in the market but he did not feel the options truly suited us, depending on what now happens in the remainder of the campaign fans will feel it was a major missed opportunity.

Many will continue to look at the shambles that was our interest in Watkins as being pure desperation as well, and the more cynical amongst us will question whether publicly moving for a player we had no chance of getting was simply designed to cover the board.In any event, here we are with a few months to go and transfer rumours and speculation will now simply shift to the end of the season and the summer, and there is already one troubling piece of speculation doing the rounds and it concerns centre half William Saliba and sadly we very quickly shift from improving the squad to potentially weakening it.

It is now bring reported that Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid are ready to firm up their interest in the 23 year old, 26 capped French international player, and that their backroom team have already tagged him as an 'absolute priority' for the summer window.Interest in Saliba comes as no surprise to anybody really, he has long been very highly rated and many have felt that he has a hugely successful career ahead of him, and in the last few seasons he has consistently performed in a manner that will prove those who felt he was capable of achieving those kinds of performance levels more than right.

Saliba knows he is still on the development curve and he will only get better with more time and experience, but having been involved with three successive title battles, sadly there will come a point when he wants to personally get over the line and he would be a massive loss to us.

His role in our defensive record in the last few years speaks for itself, and naturally the second any club begins to express a real interest in him, such is his importance at the Emirates Stadium fans would be expecting a minimum of nine figures to feature in our valuation and he should clearly only ever move on (if we have a choice in the matter) for what is at worst an almost record transfer fee in the modern game. But the stand point should absolutely be he is 'not for sale'.

And that is where a lack of action in January could come back to bite us, as if we miss out on the title challenge again in what has to be considered a far more open encounter then players may be more open to moving come the summer and it was a topic that was recently addressed by legend Ian Wright who stated that going another season without a trophy would simply have our star players wondering if this is our ceiling and that the squad has reached its peak, and that they now need to move on for personal success as the board are unwilling to push the boat out to enable us to make that next step.

It will make for an interesting summer when you look at remaining contract lengths, but it might not be interesting in the way fans would want.

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