After Xhaka’s red card in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg game against Liverpool, Arsenal was just left with two senior midfielders. Thomas Partey and Elneny are currently with Ghana and Egypt in the African cup of Nations, though Ghana was knocked out of the competition on Tuesday. Ainsley-Maitland-Niles also secured a loan move to Roma, making the issue at Arsenal rather complicated.

 

This has led to those at Arsenal intensifying effort to sign a midfielder this summer, one of the options that the London club is looking at is Juventus outcast Melo Arthur. The Brazilian has struggled to feature regularly for Juventus since he swapped a deal that saw Pjanic move to Barca in a deal worth over €72 million. The 25-year-old is more than open to the idea of quitting the Italian giant to revive his career.

 

Arsenal technical director Edu met with the player’s agent, to see ways in which the deal could pull through. With various reports stating that the player has more than welcomed the idea to move to the North London side permanently. Arthur wants to make the team for the world cup in Qatar later this year, and that can only happen if he’s playing consistently.

 

Arsenal spent the most on transfer fees last summer, as Edu brought out the checkbook to satisfy the wishes of manager Mikel Arteta. With other top “6’ clubs not too keen on making January signings, Arsenal could well repeat the same trick this winter.

 

Arthur left Barca in a bizarre swap deal, and his time in Juventus has made the deal more depressing than the circumstances surrounding the deal. Pjanic that left Juventus for the other way has also struggled for consistency as footbal fans stuggle to comprehend why the deal was made.