A Champions League player is readying an exit from his club, and Arsenal are believed to be interested in bringing him to the Premier League.
Arsenal form this season
The Gunners are back to winning ways after their 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield United at the weekend. An Eddie Nketiah hat-trick, a Fabio Vieira penalty and Takehiro Tomiyasu's late strike sealed a routine victory at the Emirates Stadium. Mikel Arteta's side have made it seven wins from a possible 10 in the top flight, and it's safe to say the Spaniard was overjoyed with one player in particular as Arsenal close the gap on table-topping Tottenham.
“I’m really happy for him, an academy player, to experience in the Premier League a hat-trick,” said Arteta on Nketiah after his three-goal haul.
“He needs to enjoy the moment. He fully deserves it and hopefully there are many more to come. He’s got an eye for goal. You look at his stats from the last 10 years. What he’s done is remarkable. He needs minutes, opportunities and service. If he gets that, Eddie is going to score goals, that’s for sure. He’s a great player for Arsenal. He can be better, yes. And the best thing is the talent that he’s got, but especially his mentality is incredible. When he has that mentality with that talent, he’s going to get much better.”
Arsenal next take on West Ham in the EFL Cup on Wednesday before their very tough away game to Newcastle United on Saturday.
Arsenal transfer targets – explained:
Nketiah's performance may well give Arsenal chiefs something to think about when the January transfer window reopens, as a lot of rumours have surrounded a potential new striker. According to recent reports, Arteta is targeting Brentford's Ivan Toney as an option, while Arsenal are also interested in Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa.
Wolves winger Pedro Neto is a target for Arsenal as well, with Arteta believed to want an alternative to star winger Bukayo Saka on the right hand side. There have been sporadic links to new defenders, too.
Indeed, according to Turkish newspaper Aksam, centre-back Victor Nelsson is "preparing to leave" Galatasaray as Arsenal eye a move to sign him. The Denmark international, who's featured regularly in the Champions League for manager Okan Buruk, is extremely likely to leave in January for what will be a club-record transfer. As well as the north Londoners, both rivals Tottenham and Dutch heavyweights Ajax are targeting him as well.
It's added that the price for his signature stands at around £13-£17 million, a fee which could prove bargain-worthy given Nelsson's been lavished with praise for his defending.
"Nelsson has fantastic defensive and positional awareness and has great knowledge of the game averaging overall 1.2 interceptions p90," wrote a Scout Report in 2020.
"He is great at clearing the ball from crosses and positions himself well in the box and is also great at heading away balls from corners. Nelsson also has great decision making when either stepping out or dropping deep and is rarely caught out."