Arsenal ‘held talks’ with Jorge Mendes over Nuno Espirito Santo replacing Mikel Arteta | Football | Sport

At that point, only Sheffield United had a worse recent league record than Arsenal despite the club having one of the most expensively assembled squads in the division, with the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil said to be on around £350,000-a-week.

But Boxing Day’s 3-1 victory over Chelsea has been followed by 1-0 and 4-0 away wins at Brighton and West Brom respectively to move Arsenal up to 11th and within nine points of the top four.

Arteta has managed to turn the club’s fortunes around but he will not be given a transfer war chest in January to improve things further despite wanting to bring in a midfielder, according to respected journalist Duncan Castles.