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Arsenal are ready to back Mikel Arteta in the January transfer window with funds to strengthen his creaking defence.

They are keeping close tabs on RB Leipzig defender Dayot Upamecano who could be allowed to leave next month with his contract running down.

France under-21 centre half Upamecano, 21, who has 18 months left on his current deal, is attracting interest from Premier League clubs with Arsenal among the big admirers.

Gunners boss Arteta needs to start rebuilding his squad and defence is a key area with Calum Chambers the latest to join the casualty list with a knee injury suffered against Chelsea on Sunday.

(Image: Getty Images)

Greek defender Sokratis, Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin, Sead Kolasinac and Kieran Tierney have all been missing and that has left Arsenal facing major injury worries.

Arsenal have signed William Saliba from St Etienne - he is currently loaned back to the French club - and could even enquire about him joining up early.

But defence is one area where Arteta definitely wants to strengthen as David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi are now likely to be left holding the fort until others return.

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Arsenal spent big last summer and gambled on finishing on the top four but are likely to sanction funds especially as they are likely to lose players and there will be ins and outs.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is likely to leave next summer if Arsenal do not get a place in the top four while Granit Xhaka is wanted by Hertha Berlin in January.

Arteta is ready to start a reshuffle as he looks to improve the squad with Luiz admitting that the new manager’s methods will take time to bed in after Sunday’s defeat to Chelsea but insisted the coach is “world class.”

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Luiz said: “He’s trying to make a new philosophy. I think everybody saw that in the first half, we dominated the game and we should have scored the second goal. It would have been a different game.

“After that the second half was very nervous and both teams were fighting till the end. In the process they are in front of us, they had a pre-season together with the same philosophy and coach.

“It’s up to us to improve ourselves, we need to get some points, some results. We need to understand the stage of the season we’re in now. We have to take the positives from the Chelsea game and improve the negative things.

“We have to try to improve ourselves as soon as possible because this club deserves to shine again. They did the right choice with Arteta, he will be one of the best coaches in the world for sure because he knows football, he understands football.

“He’s trying to improve our team with some field training. We’re going to try to do our best. The first half everybody saw an amazing thing. The second half Chelsea were better than us.”