Arsenal get huge windfall just days before the January transfer window deadline

Mikel Arteta has been 'actively looking' to improve his Arsenal squad this month as he gears up for another Premier League title showdown

Arsenal have been given a major boost ahead of the January transfer window deadline. The Gunners banked an eye-watering sum from the Champions League on Wednesday night as they topped the 'league phase' table and secured automatic qualification to the last 16.

Mikel Arteta's side sealed their fate with a 3-2 win over Kairat at the Emirates Stadium. By defeating the Kazakhstani outfit, Arsenal etched itself into the history books, becoming the first and only team to remain unbeaten and win each of its eight games.

Like every other club in the competition, the north Londoners were granted £16.18m by UEFA just for participating. The European governing body offers £1.82m per win, so Arsenal were awarded a further £14.56m.

UEFA also offers £239,000 per final position in the table, so the Gunners banked a further £8.6m. On top of that, they reward clubs that finish in the top eight and advance directly to the last 16, so Arsenal earned £9.56m for their efforts.

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All in all, Arteta has earned the club a whopping £48.9m in prize money just days before the transfer window slams shut. Andrea Berta hasn't welcomed any new faces to the Emirates Stadium yet this month, so the windfall comes as a huge boost.

At the end of December, the Gunners boss admitted that he's 'actively looking' to bolster his side in January, despite forking out over £250m on eight arrivals in the summer.

Arteta said: "The window is there, and I mean we are Arsenal, and we have to be looking at it -- 'Okay, what do we need?' And we have to be actively looking, and then, whether we can do it or not, that's a different story.

"But our job is to always be very prepared because something can happen, so hopefully it'll be very positive. When you look across the other clubs, they have 24 or 25 squad players.

"Although we have had more injuries than expected, some of them not avoidable, we want to be better, and we know how important the part of having the right availability with players is going to be this season."

Arteta may be keen to improve his squad this month, but Berta is in a race against time to wrap up any business. This season, the January transfer window will close at 7pm on Monday, February 2.