Arsenal transfer news LIVE: Thomas Partey, Houssem Aouar, Alexandre Lacazette and more - plus Premier League updates
The Gunners remain perfect to start the season after victory over West Ham and now look to strengthen further in the transfer market
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Mikel Arteta remains perfect this season, as Arsenal defeated West Ham to make it two wins from two, but attention turns to the transfer market where he is eager to strengthen further.
Thomas Partey and Houssem Aouar remain priorities, but the Gunners may need to sell or get creative to land their first choice players, who will come at a premium.
There is also plenty of dead wood in the eyes of the Spaniard to cut down on as he streamlines his squad ahead of what promises to be an exciting season for the Gunners.
SOKRATIS COULD LEAVE ON FREE
Sokratis is into the last year of his contract with Arsenal and the club are thinking of letting him leave on a free transfer to get his wages off the books.
The 32-year-old has reportedly gotten interest from Napoli should they lose Kalidou Koulibaly in this transfer window.
Other more lucrative offers are said to have come in from Saudi Arabia and Qatar but they might not be on the table forever, so he’s very keen to get things sorted as soon as possible.
There’s nothing to suggest that Napoli are close to agreeing a deal for Koulibaly to move on at this point, so he might have to take one of those alternative offers instead.
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ARSENAL WILL SIGN MIDFIELDER ‘FOR SURE'
Arsenal continue their their hunt for a midfielder this summer with Houssem Aouar and Thomas Partey the main targets.
Fabrizio Romano joined talkSPORT to chat transfer news and he revealed that the Gunners would sign one of the two players but which one is not yet sure.
“For sure, Arsenal will try to get a midfielder,” he said. “It will be Aouar or Thomas .
“But it’s important for them to sell players; we talk about [Lucas] Torreira, [Sead] Kolasinac and Sokratis.
“They need to sell and if they sell players, they will come back for one of Aouar or Thomas.”
IS A COUTINHO LOAN DEAL POSSIBLE?
Yes. According to journalist Layth Yousif. Arsenal are reportedly looking likely to revive their transfer interest in Barcelona attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho.
Apparently Arsenal held an interest in Coutinho earlier in the summer while he was still out on loan at Bayern Munich and with Ronald Koeman reshaping things at Barcelona the Gunners think they can bring him in on a season-long loan deal.
ATLETICO AGREE TERMS WITH TORREIRA
Lucas Torreira seems to be heading away from the Emirates with Atletico Madrid his favoured destination.
Italian journalist, Fabrizio Romano, says the Spanish club have agreed personal terms with Torreira but that a deal with Arsenal over the transfer fee still needs to be hashed out:
ELNENY’S AGENT MET WITH TWO CLUBS
Mohamed Elneny could still leave the Emirates this summer if a report from Egyptian outlet ExtraSport is to be believed.
The report claims that Elneny’s agent was in Turkey yesterday in discussions with Galatasaray and Trabzonspor over a possible move for the Egyptian.
Apparently there are two offers on the table should he want to take one.
Elneny spent last season on loan at Besiktas and many fans expected him to leave Arsenal this summer before Mikel Arteta started including him in the Gunners’ plans.
The Egyptian started the Community Shield game against Liverpool as well as the opening match in the Premier League against Fulham.
SALIBA SET FOR ARSENAL DEBUT
Mikel Arteta is set to give new signing William Saliba his debut for the club as they prepare to face Leicester City in the Carabao Cup tonight.
William Saliba set for Arsenal debut in Carabao Cup
French defender has settled into the squad ‘really well’
CHAMBERS WANTED BY THREE PREMIER LEAGUE CLUBS
Arsenal defender, Calum Chambers is reportedly being monitored by three Premier League clubs including Leeds United.
The 25-year-old centre-back moved to North London back in 2014 and has made a total of 101 first team appearances.
But the defender has fallen out of favour under Mikel Arteta as he has yet to feature this term, and the club may wish to move him on for a rumoured £13.05m valuation.
Alongside Leeds, West Ham and Newcastle and interested in Chambers.
Journalist Nicolo Schira has revealed on Twitter that all three English sides are keen on making a move.
LeedsLive further add to the speculation around Chambers’ future, claiming that Arteta would be willing to sell the defender for a figure in the region of £15m.
A move to another Premier League club would be a good one for the defender, with West Ham presumably the pick of the three aforementioned interested sides, given they are based in London.
ARTETA EYEING UP DIAWARA
Mikel Arteta is looking to bring in players to bolster his midfield with Thomas Partey and Houssem Aouar the top two targets.
But now, according to reports Arsenal have their sights set on Roma’s Amadou Diawara.
The Guinean is an important player in Paulo Fonseca’s side but Roma could look to cash in for a fee of around €30m.
At €20m less than Partey, Arteta believes he would be a solid capture that would strengthen his midfield.
If Roma do sell Diawara to the Gunners it could have a knock on effect for Manchester United as it would give Roma the finances they need to bring Chris Smalling back to the club.
ARTETA TARGETING EFL CUP
Mikel Arteta says that Arsenal will be aiming to win the EFL Cup this year after years of Manchester City dominance.
Often teams from the Premier League use the cup fixtures as a means to give the secondary members of their squads gametime but Arteta says he will pick his strongest team against Leicester tonight.
He told Sky Sports:
"There’s only one winner in this country with the Premier League so there’s a lot of frustrated clubs. Everybody wants a title.
"You can see over the past few years the strong line ups teams are using and the types of finals we’ve had in recent years.
"In the fixtures that we have and the number of games, it is very difficult - maybe not in the first game but as the competition moves forward - to see how teams, not just ourselves, are going to treat the competition.
“On Wednesday we’ll put out the strongest possible team to try to win it.”
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