Arsenal want Douglas Luiz and Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard has suggested there is ‘no news’ about him extending his contract with the club.
The Gunners have made an outstanding start to the Premier League season but will still want new signings in 2023.
Edu will have targets in mind for January and next summer, with central midfield bound to be an area of concern.
Mohamed Elneny is out injured and will become a free agent at the end of the season, so adding competition for Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka and Albert Sambi Lokonga is vital.
Arsenal want Douglas Luiz
One of the most popular names in the mix is Aston Villa star Douglas Luiz.
Sky Sports reported on deadline day that Arsenal made three bids for Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz, but all were rejected.
Arsenal offered £20million, £23million and £25million for Douglas Luiz but Villa stood firm and said no.
The problem for Villa is that Douglas Luiz is out of contract at the end of the season and currently looks set to leave for nothing.
That situation may well tempt Arsenal back in with a new offer in January.
The Sun claim that Arsenal want to launch a cut-price bid in January, believing that £15million should be enough to finally bring Douglas Luiz to the Emirates Stadium.
Douglas Luiz is known to both Mikel Arteta and Edu and adding him as cover and competition for Partey seems like a sensible move – especially if the price can be brought down.
Villa boss Gerrard has now been asked about the Brazilian’s future and whether he could end up signing a new deal at Villa Park.
Gerrard told the Daily Mail that there is ‘no news’ on Douglas Luiz staying put, even if he is ‘very focused’ and training well at Villa.
Gerrard added that Douglas Luiz is a ‘fantastic talent’ and Villa of course want him to stay, but Arsenal may well look to ruin those hopes comes the new year.
“No news in terms of him extending his stay here, so that situation hasn’t changed, but what I would say is that he’s very focused and has trained well,” said Gerrard. “Am I surprised by the speculation? No, because we have got a young Brazilian player who is a fantastic talent, so I expect to be asked this question a lot as the season progresses.”
“We want him to stay here, the owners were very strong in keeping him here. We didn’t obviously want to lose him on the final day and he has performed very well since and he has trained very well and he is ready to go at the weekend,” he added.
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