Arsene Wenger continues to defend Arsenal's inactivity during the summer transfer window.
Arsenal, somewhat famously by now, were the only club in Europe's top-five leagues to not sign a single senior team outfield player.
Arsenal has been said to have needed to sign a striker and a defensive midfielder.
“To support the club and support the team is to stand behind the players,” Wenger said. “It is not always expecting someone coming down from heaven to sort out all your problems.”
Arsenal are short handed now that Danny Welbeck will be out for several months.
“You either find someone who strengthens your squad or not. Whether we have players injured or not doesn’t change the problem. That’s what I don’t understand from the media. I am surprised that people accused me of lying.
“When I was in the press conference on Friday morning, I did not know Welbeck had a bad setback. I did not lie to you, I gave you the information I had. I heard late on Friday night that his condition had not evolved as well as we thought it was and he had needed a specialist and needed further investigation. Apart from that, if we did not find someone [to sign], we did not find them. I can understand everyone’s hope, but if you look at what happened in the transfer market it shows you that there is a shortage of solutions out there.
“I have made more than 300 transfers and every time it’s a decision to make. Do you buy the player because he strengthens his squad or not? The solutions we had were not convincing at all. In the end you do not buy to give hope, you want to buy because the players who come in can help your squad to be stronger. Buying and selling is one way to strengthen your team but that’s not the only way.”