Arsenal could be on course to teach Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel and interim sporting director Todd Boehly a key transfer lesson amid midfield worries.
The Blues have been very busy in the transfer market, just like their north London compatriots, and both sides could be very active in the last 48 hours of the transfer window. Once Wesley Fofana is announced, it is understood that two attackers are being targeted by Boehly as the final pieces of the puzzle. Wilfried Zaha, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and even potentially Neymar could be on the agenda in that regard.
Meanwhile, at London Colney, Edu and the higher-ups at Arsenal are planning potential late swoops for two players- a defensive midfielder and potentially a winger. The former of the positions has already been confirmed by David Ornstein and others. football.london understands that Mohamed Elneny has suffered a hamstring injury. He is set to be assessed in the next 24 hours to confirm the severity. The Gunners want this confirmed before making any big transfer decisions.
With it likely being confirmed that the Egyptian will be sidelined for some time amid positive news on Oleksandr Zinchenko and Thomas Party pre-Aston Villa, this will be the likes of Youri Tielemans and others back on the table.
In addition to this, moves for Pedro Neto and Cody Gakpo could be pursued as a need for a new wide player has been amplified following Nicolas Pepe’s loan exit to OCG Nice. If a move for a midfielder and winger were to come off, all the holes in the Gunners squad will be filled.
This won’t be the same story in SW6. Even if the two aforementioned attackers were signed on top of Fofana, questions will remain over the midfield situation, with Tuchel already realising the mistake he has made in that regard.
“It is, and it’s normally the area I would love to have a headache about who plays and who is on the bench. This is normally the area where I thought we would have five players that could all play for us and have Carney [Chukwuemeka] on top as an option as a young player,” Tuchel said before Southampton. “The headache before the season was whether we had too many players there, but it comes to the fifth game, and maybe we only have two left with experience in this position and Kova from the bench because he is not ready to play full matches at Premier League level as he only had a week after training after his injury.
“It’s a strange situation and a situation we don’t like. I don’t know why we are in this situation, actually. It’s like this, and we will have something to think about [over the team selection], or maybe not because it’s so obvious who we have left.”
Frenkie de Jong to Chelsea remains the most viable option on the table if the Dutchman, who is currently in London for a break, was to make an unexpected late U-turn on his stance. Alternatively, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Idrissa Gueye were reportedly two options that were under consideration, but neither are set to materialise before the Thursday deadline. Coupled with this, Billy Gilmour’s potential permanent transfer exit to Brighton could really fuel further headaches for Tuchel.
Mateo Kovacic’s and N’Golo Kante’s unreliability to stay fit really puts pressure on Jorginho, Conor Gallagher, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and potential Carney Chukwuemeka to stand up in the face of adversity. This could have all been avoided, though, if midfield was moved up the priority list earlier in the transfer window. Arsenal are set to fill that position whilst Chelsea, as it stands, will just trust what they have in-house.
