The Draxler saga has been dragged on for nearly this entire month, as Arsenal remained locked into negotiation talks with Schalke. Wenger was widely expected to make a dramatic last minute announcement of his arrival, similar to the way he did with Mesut Ozil in August. However, seems like he has missed the bus this time around, as he held a press conference today where he conceded defeat in Draxler’s chase – at least for this window.

When he was asked about the overly hyped nature of this transfer speculation, Metro reported him as saying, “The Draxler situation has been created by the newspapers, not by me. He will stay at Schalke.”

Arsenal suddenly find themselves short of options in midfield, following Mathieu Flamini’s suspension and Aaron Ramsey’s injury setback. Therefore, along with this announcement, he also said that he fully expects to make at least one new signing in this remaining 24 hours, hugely expected to be a midfielder. He further said, “We are still trying to bring one body in because of Ramsey’s setback and Flamini’s suspension,”

“I’m confident we will bring someone in today. It’s 80/20 per cent chance.”

Naturally Wenger did manage to bring in some depth with the loan signing of Swedish international midfielder, Kim Kallstrom from Russian side Spartak Moscow until the end of the 2013/14 campaign.