Arsenal made the best out of several bad situations this January transfer window, and with more players moving in and out of the club than any winter in recent memory, this month has felt like a whirlwind.

1Lemons and lemonade

via Arsenal.com

The first and most notable lemon was the unceremonious exit of Alexis Sanchez.

After years of (not so subtly) hinting that he wanted to move to Manchester City to inexplicably link up with a manager that had previously deemed him not good enough, the Chilean instead chose to play for the other side of Manchester.

The rift between him and the rest of the dressing room was obvious. Not nearly as many heartfelt goodbyes were publicly wished to him as when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Francis Coquelin exited despite the success he (at times singlehandedly) brought the club.

Since Alexis would be going for nothing in the summer, many fans wanted Arsenal to collect any cash they could for him while still possible.

Instead, Arsenal came away with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a superb playmaker who was obviously wasted under Jose Mourinho.

This was absolutely the best-case scenario.

No amount of cash that was being offered would have been enough to replace a player of Alexis’ calibre. Mkhitaryan is not quite on his level but is not far off.

Moreover, with the Gunners currently sitting in 6th place, Champions League football is seriously in doubt. That would make it next to impossible to attract players of such skill in the summer, no matter how many bags of cash thrown at them.

Coming away with an immediate suitable replacement for Sanchez was the best fans could have hoped for.

Snagging his former Dortmund teammate, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, is big for the same reason.

aubameyang mkhitaryan
Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

The club getting a boatload of goals in January when it would be incredibly difficult to do so in the summer is a superb bit of business from the front office.

Next, new management behind the scenes doing well…

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