Good evening, Arsenal fans. Here are your evening headlines for Sunday, September 20.
Lyon president delivers Auoar update
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has issued an update on the future of midfielder Houssem Aouar, who is wanted by Arsenal.
Aulus was asked outright whether he believes the France international will complete a move to north London before the transfer window closes on October 5.
He replied: “No I don't think so, no offer yet. It seems that Arsenal don't want to, or can't invest the price for Houssem, who is our best player.”
Aulas comments were made after Lyon's sporting director, Juninho, confirmed the Gunners’ interest in Aouar and revealed discussions were held over a potential swap deal involving Matteo Guendouzi.
“Houssem Aouar is really well-liked by (Mikel) Arteta,” said Juninho. “There were some discussions for [Matteo] Guendouzi, who is also a good player. He was brought up during the discussion.
“But we don't need his profile, we were very clear. If it is like that, we are not interested at all, we cut the conversation, that is where things ended.”
Arteta open to Kolasinac sale
Following Kieran Tierney’s excellent form to close out last season, impressing Arteta greatly as he switched between left centre-back and left-back, Sead Kolasinac has been told he is free to leave Arsenal.
TEAMTalk claims Arteta has spoken with the 27-year-old defender and informed him that he can leave the Emirates Stadium before October 5.
Kolasinac started in Tierney’s place in Saturday’s win over West Ham United after the Scotland international suffered an injury in the warm-up. But Arteta confirmed after the win there is no long-term damage.
“Kieran is fine. He had a little muscular discomfort in the last few days,” the Spanish boss said.
“He tried today and worked in the warm-up but he wasn’t feeling comfortable today.
“We believed that he was going to be fit but during the warm-up, in the last 10 minutes, he said he wasn’t feeling OK.
“We had to make a decision. We were prepared just in case and Kola came on and had a good game.”
Sokratis waiting for Koulibaly transfer
After being jettisoned from Arsenal's first-team in the closing weeks of last season, Sokratis is expected to leave the Gunners in the coming weeks.
The Greek international, who signed for Arsenal two years ago from Borussia Dortmund, has reportedly agreed a deal with Napoli.
However, the Italian side are delaying the transfer until Kalidou Koulibaly secures a transfer to Manchester City.
According to Corriere dello Sport, via Sport Witness, Sokratis is “waiting” for the Senegal international to confirm his Manchester switch.
Napoli and City are not negotiating directly after their relationship soured when Jorginho moved to Chelsea instead of joining Pep Guardiola’s side.
Sokratis has one year remaining on his contract at Arsenal and has fallen a long way down the centre-back pecking order with the arrival of Gabriel, the return of William Saliba, and the re-integration of Rob Holding.
