Mikel Arteta is looking for the final piece in his midfield. To have an engine room he can rely on for years to come, he is expected to follow Declan Rice’s arrival with another marquee midfielder, especially as Jorginho, Elneny and Partey are all expected to be moving on this summer.
So, which midfielder does he really want? Well, Ben Jacobs tells Football Terrace that if Mikel Arteta had his way, he would choose either Douglas Luiz or Martin Zubimendi. He claims the two are Arsenal’s top targets, and signing either would complete the Spaniards’ midfield dream.
To sign either of the two would be expensive, which is why Arsenal has alternatives like Amadou Onana. There were rumours that they’d even held talks with the Belgian international and had just not recruited him because of Arsenal’s tricky financial situation.
Nonetheless, this top journalist believes the preference is for Luiz or Zubimendi to join. Ben Jacobs said, “If you were to rank Arsenal’s top two midfield targets even above the links with Onana, it would be Zubimendi and Douglas Luiz.
“I think those would be the two if they had carte blanche that they would move for. We know they have tried for Zubimendi in the past; he is very happy at Sociedad; they are having an incredible season, so I would expect them not to pre-agree anything. But the Arenal interest hasn’t gone away.”
With the Declan Rice £105 million swoop last year demonstrating Arsenal can recruit anybody they want, I’m confident that if a midfielder deal is closed in the summer, Onana may not be the midfielder joining Arsenal; instead, one of Luiz or Zubimendi may join.
Who would be your Two Top midfield targets?
Daniel O
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Onana or Zubimendi
Zubimendi Is a younger version of Jorginho and won’t cut it in our league. We need power and pace in the midfield as Odegaard has neither and can’t be reliant on rice to do it all. Onana for me
Is a younger version of Jorginho and wouldn’t cut it in our league?
I think Jorginho did a fantastic job of cutting it in the Premiership.
I can’t remember jorginho ever playing in the Premiership
Only Douglas Luiz, because we don’t have a productive dead-ball specialist like him
@gai, it wondnt be worth signing a midfielder if only what he brings is playing dead ball. Besides, can you tell me how many free kicks he has scored for Villa this season?
I don’t know how many goals and assists he made from dead-ball situations this season, but I was impressed with his set-piece skills last season
Aside from that, he has scored 6 goals and made 3 assists from 20 EPL appearances this season
He was trained at Man City for several years as well, so he’d likely adapt to Arteta’s system quickly
Onana and Douglas Luize!
They will fit in easily because they know what Epl is all about. I would not consider Zubimendy because of his size, though he is a technical player. There are games where Odegard get bullied and go missing because of his size. It also took him a season to adapt to Epl it’s same with most Spanish players that comes to Epl.
A midfielder shouldn’t be a priority. Zinchenko is a great footballer who is a natural midfielder, Jesus too is an attacking midfielder. Both are not played in their best positions.
We need a killer striker
If the idea is to sign a defensive midfielder to allow Rice to assume the Box-to-Box midfielder role that I have read about then I would go for someone like Eduardo Camavinga. A higher quality of player than Luiz, Zubimenda or Onana..
João Palhinha is the only defensive midfielder that out plays Rice every time Fulham plays Arsenal. So he would be my first choice to play along side Rice to create that concrete wall. Then I would have one of the most creative attacking midfielder in world football and that’s Napoli’s khvicha Kvaratskhelia ( he normally scores a 9 rating when playing as a center attacking midfielder, he can also play in any of the forward positions as well.
Zubimendi will generate power as fabregas did. Bring in the spaniard
OT….Non of the Armchair managers on JA will say anything about TK getting injured again for the second time this season…but let him get fit and play just for few weeks they will all continue ranting on how Arteta is so stubborn and foolish to let him go out on a loan…
Douglas Luiz is the complete midfielder we need. He has both tecnical and physical ability and can play as a DM or CM, depending on were Arteta wants to play Rice. Zubimendi is also a good pick and a versatile player, but is more of a deep playmaker who is decent going forward. I prefer Luiz.
a rock in defence is the primary DM trait we need
too often in the past we bought so called ‘attack minded DM’, the reality of that being that defensively they were not good enough to often
Xhaka being an example that springs to mind, last season was aberration not playing DM
so my point is we should buy a proper geneuine DM to play DM, not these pretend hybriids
Onana for me for age profile, Palhinha for proven PL track record
Trouble is I don’t trust Arteta’s picks. Wasn’t Harvertz supposed to be the genius stroke to solve all our problems? Xhaka and Giroud all rolled into one, a 65 million pounds bundle of exceptional talent?. Add Viera, Lukongo and and two unproductive buys in Partey and Jorghino, and well, it’s a track record that has seen more misses than hits with regards to midfielders. In, addition our lack of activity during this current transfer window is pretty much an indication that Arteta has spent his allocated budget and also that this seasons’ title race has become a lost cause.
I disagree. While there have been misses, we’ve had made better recruitment choices than any club in the prem bar perhaps Brighton.
Sean, Not for the huge total of money spent we haven’t!
We have had a lot of flops and players who are losing value weekly.
In no special order, we have wasted large and smaller money PLUS WAGES ON ALL, on Pepe, Tavares, Lokonga, Viera, Havertz, Raya, Soares, re -signing Elneny while not giving our many talented youngsters who have come through the club any PROPER chance to show what they can do.
I like a great deal of how MA manages our club . BUT, I CANNOT AGREE his transfers both in and also in keeping dross here, are anymore than, overall, a curates egg; meaning good in parts. AMN ‘s one time value was allowed to dwindle to nothing too!
And why wehave not cashed in on Tierney, a top class player but who MA does not want , is a puzzle. He is getting older and is of no real financial use to us on loan at all
YES, OF COURSE WE HAVE BOUGHT SOME TOP PLAYERS TOO. MARTINELLI, being best value for money, Also Odegaard, White, finally at longlast, using SALIBA, Tomi, Partey(on ability though NOT on fitness) Timber, Zinchenko, Jesus, Ramsdale, even though stupidly sidelined for no sensible reason at all.
Not all of the latter list are everyones cup of tea either and I HAVE SOME HOPE, not much , but some, that HAVERTZ may still prove better value than he has shown so far.
I cannot understnd what MA fails to see in ESR, who OUGHT to be a regular as he has been completely fit now for some time past, but he sadly is only given a few late minutes here and there.
His transfer record apart, I am a fan of MA AND STILL RETAIN FAITH THAT HE WILL, in the fullness of time return us to the very top.
Liverpool too, have far exceeded us, in Klopps time, for value spent in the transfer rmarket. BY FAR!
A fit Partey and Declan Rice.. then forget about anyone else!!
Partey is past it, everyone gets old eventually, even me
Partey of four years ago yes, but Partey of the next four years no
sad, inevitable, but true – hence this article of who comes in to replace him
Partey is fit and training ken
That’s what I read today ..
Let’s hope he does not get put at RB again .
👍👍👍👍
What we need is a strong physical presence in the midfield since Partey is strongly link to a move. But because we have film actors as coach and sports director, they will end up getting us a Vierra ( not Patrick) type of players. When are we going to get it right in arsenal?
Palhinha or Onana
not both
i would like to think we could bring someone from the academy through to develop along side them and Rice
Patino is not a DM but I would bring him back
i would buy only one , not two, as we need money elsewhere, mainly defence
while ‘prolific striker’ is something every team could use, even Liverpool (Darwin scores as often as our strikers), the problem is 1) who, 2) how much, 3) are 30 goals guaranteed
Ivan Toney only scored 14 non-pen goals in the league last season, we want double that for £100m, Solanke is very far from prolific, no-one else in PL so then other leagues which carries a huge risk their skills don’t translate
consistent prolific strikers are very rare, only Haarland and Kane in the last decade in the PL, and the later proved that no matter how good you are in that one position it does not guarantee trophies
more trophies and titles are won by teams without a prolific elite striker than one’s with – Man C and the freak of nature Haarland aside
I think the article posting is talking of a stronger midfield engine room option. That on it Arteta can trust and rely on for years to come. And correctly be giving him what he wants.
But if so, would then the signing of Onana by Arsenal this window not immediately fits the bill for Arteta’s Arsenal team squad in this regard? And start to give him what he wants in the Gunners midfield engine room in particular and in the team in general..
If Arteta, Edu and the Arsenal Board vis the ownership can help the situation need in the Arsenal midfield this window. I will suggest to them to do the Onana signing before the window closes.
This is because it is a current transfer that they can control to make it happen if they chose to do so.
But for those of Douglas Luiz and Martin Zubimendi transferring to Arsenal, it’s a feature situation that they cannot control because it remains in the unpredictable future status.
If Partey and Jorginho leaves, then i think Zubimendi will be the ideal replacement. A lot of versatile players in our squad to play as third choice DM.
We can’t afford to lose three deep-lying midfielders in Partey, Elneny and Jorginho and then bring in only one. That would weaken the team.
May be the compromise would be to keep Jorginho for another year and bring in a new midfielder while letting go the other two
My choice would be Youssef Fofana of Monaco. He would probably come cheapest and would be the nearest thing to a Partey clone
I like Onana because he’s massive and is good for a bit of shit-housery.
My two are, buy Zubimendi and keep Partey as the back-up.
The problem is, as I have said all season, Arteta will not drop Havertz, so where will the new DM play?????
Getting party for would be a massive boost, especially with ffp potentially being a issue for us. I still think we need a replacement for xhaka so my option would be milinkovic-savic.
I don’t think we have a problem in the middle of the park. We have many players on that area. At some stage the club wants to buy 19yrs and 21year players from other clubs, but we have those players in the system. If we keep on buying what are we going to do with so many young players, especially the ones from our academy,, When are we going to begin the real integration. Arteta is always afraid of playing our young stars that’s why the likes of ESR and Nelson are still not playing regularly
Agree with what you say President, getting rid of Viera, Elneny , Jorghino and Partey and down grading Harvertz will clear up space for any promising junior to demonstrate their potential but we also need a beast like Onana and ball playing Spanish or Italian type midfielder to thread those passes especially when Odegard has one of his no show days.
Must keep ESR….it’s a signal to our whole system. Get rid of Viera and Havertz.
Zubimendi stands out a little more than Douglas Luiz. Looks more elegant, but still strong. Luiz does his job well but doesn’t have that little classy thing. BUT…..Douglas Luiz knows his wan around the EPL and is EPL ready. Luiz is a real executioner, Zubimendi is a baller and better for long term football quality.
I started watching Real Sociedad games because of Arsenal’s interest in Zubimendi. If you focus on him you find that he is very good. He moves the game forward without making mistakes and is always where he needs to be when he needs to defend. I also focused on Luiz’s game, but between the two I prefer Zubimendi.
People need to stop calling for Havertz to be dumped; he’s not going to be going anywhere and will continue to be picked. Unfortunately, the silly playmaker from Leverkusen has gone now, Chelsea saw to that. What we have an opportunity to do though is develop him into a top class striker. He’s fantastic in the air and has a natural ability to arrive at the right time. Let’s turn him into the next RvP. Robin didn’t start out as the striker that scored 30 goals for us, he developed into it over the course of several years. So let’s not right off a player or similar standard after half a season.
If we are to continue with the system we have been using over the last season and a half, we need to make better use of the personnel we already have. I would like to see Timber or Tomiyasu at LB and Zinchenko used in the Xhaka role; it’s a no brainier and he has the technical ability to do it and it takes some of the defensive responsibility away from him, which will take the pressure off him and allow him to excel.