Mikel Arteta believes the competitiveness of this summer’s transfer window is unlike anything he has experienced before, but remains hopeful Arsenal can bring in a winger to replace Nicolas Pepe before Thursday’s deadline.
Premier League spending surpassed £1.5 billion on Thursday, exceeding the record for a single window of £1.43bn from 2017, with several clubs including Chelsea and Manchester United expected to make further additions to their squads in the coming days.
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Arsenal have already spent around £120 million in the window and after Pepe‘s season-long loan move to Nice was confirmed on Thursday, they are seeking to make at least one more addition with Wolverhampton‘s Pedro Neto their top target, although the two clubs remain some way apart in their valuations.
“If you look at the players who are coming, the amount of money spent, the level that already the squads have and what they are adding, it’s something that I haven’t experienced in this league,” Arteta said on Friday.
“You saw [on Thursday] a few of the transfers that happened and what is going to happen in the last week or so I think is going to be very powerful.
“The record in terms of performances that the leagues have produced last year it’s the highest ever. When you look at the points you need to achieve certain things it’s never happened before. The level has raised so much for every team in this league and you can already see that in these first few games with surprises and results.”
