Arsenal Turn Attention To Corner Kick Specialist, Aston Villa Reveals 15m Price Tag

In light of rumors that Arsenal may sign Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa before the summer transfer window ends, this is how things stand for the Gunners right now.

The transfer deadline has come, and Arsenal is in a hurry to close any outstanding transactions.

Five players—Gabriel Jesus, Matt Turner, Marquinhos, Fabio Vieira, and Oleksandr Zinchenko—have joined the team. However, the first-team roster has been reduced due to the release of Alexandre Lacazette and the long-term departures of Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira, among others.

Despite Arsenal leading the Premier League standings after five games with a perfect record after defeating Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Bournemouth, Fulham, and Aston Villa, manager Mikel Arteta is still confident of adding to his roster before the 11 p.m. deadline.

After his team defeated Villa 2-1 on the strength of goals from Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli, he commented in the post-match press conference, “The club has been incredibly supportive to keep strengthening the squad and the team as we can.” “We will try if the proper guy is available and we can pull it off,”

Although, taking into consideration that Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are both currently sidelined through injury, a midfield signing might just be the priority on transfer deadline day. With that said, the Spaniard did suggest that he has depth in that department to cope.

“Well, we were pretty protected in that position, and now we are more exposed,” Arteta added. “We have to be prepared for uncertainties, injuries and suspensions. Things like that can happen, especially this season which is going to be really strange with the World Cup. We try to protect from that, but it’s not easy.”

It’s not surprising that a number of players have been predicted to join the Emirates Stadium before the transfer window closes, with links to Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz — who scored in the game between the two clubs last night — emerging in recent hours. But what is the current status of this deal? gunners247.com examines.

Luiz’s one-year contract at Villa Park and potential availability for as cheap as £15 million may be excellent news for Arsenal, with manager Steven Gerrard not discounting the idea of a deadline-day transfer for the Brazilian. “That is not in my control. There are more than two people in control of that, and I am certainly not one of them,” the Villa boss said.

“That will be Douglas, that will be his agent, that will be what happens. I would like to keep him, he is a fantastic player. I have made that abundantly clear. We are not in a position where we need to lose our top players, but at the same time, Douglas has got a year to go, and it is one of those really touchy situations where the club has to do what is best for the club, not necessarily what is best for me.”

Although it remains to be seen if this will alter over the day as history suggests anything can happen in the last hours on deadline day, sources at Villa have confirmed that the club’s position at the time of writing is that Luiz will not be sold.