Unai Emery said Arsenal could recruit up to two players before Thursday's transfer deadline, with Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic linked with a move to the Emirates.
The Arsenal manager's preference is for loan deals and Barcelona midfielder Denis Suarez is also rumoured to be on the Premier League club's radar.
"We are looking at two different players and the possibility they can come. If they aren't coming to help us like we want, I prefer they don't come."
Emery hinted at his reluctance to recruit defensive reinforcements, despite injuries to Sokratis Papastathopoulos (ankle) and Laurent Koscielny (jaw).
"We have enough players, centre-backs in the squad. Only we're having a lot of injuries and a lot in this position," the Spaniard said.
"If we can bring another player and when all the players want to play, we can have a lot of trouble in the future."
Sokratis and Koscielny were injured in Friday's FA Cup loss to Manchester United.
Sokratis is expected to be out for "maybe two or three weeks," Emery said, while Koscielny's jaw is bruised, but not broken.
The Frenchman will miss Tuesday's Premier League clash with Cardiff, but could be back for Sunday's trip to champions Manchester City.
Fifth-placed Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-0 in their most recent Premier League match, a result that will count for little if the Gunners fail to beat relegation-threatened Cardiff.
The match at the Emirates will be emotionally charged after the disappearance last week of a plane carrying new Cardiff signing Emiliano Sala.
"If you win against Chelsea and you don't win tomorrow, you are losing three very important points," Emery said.
"Tomorrow we need to impose and to adapt. I think they're going to play with a big motivation, also and finding a lot of duels against us.
"We need tomorrow to be concentrated for the three points like we were against Chelsea." afp