Transfer deadline day has arrived and Arsenal are facing a race against time to get further deals completed.
In terms of incomings, five have arrived in Gabriel Jesus, Matt Turner, Marquinhos, Fabio Vieira and Oleksandr Zinchenko, whilst the first-team squad has been trimmed with the release of Alexandre Lacazette in addition to the permanent exits for Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira among others.
Even with Arsenal starting the new Premier League season with wins over Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Bournemouth, Fulham and Aston Villa to sit top of the table with a 100 percent record after five games, manager Mikel Arteta remains hopeful of adding to his squad before the 11pm deadline.
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"The club has been super supportive to keep improving the squad and the team as we can," he said in the post-match press conference after his side beat Villa 2-1 thanks to goals from Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli. "If the right player is available and we can do it we will try."
Although, taking into consideration that Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are both currently sidelined through injury, a midfield signing might just be the priority on transfer deadline day. With that said, the Spaniard did suggest that he has depth in that department to cope.
"Well, we were pretty protected in that position, and now we are more exposed," Arteta added. "We have to be prepared for uncertainties, injuries and suspensions. Things like that can happen, especially this season which is going to be really strange with the World Cup. We try to protect from that, but it's not easy."
Unsurprisingly, a host of players have been tipped to arrive at the Emirates Stadium before the transfer window closes with links to Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz - who scored in the meeting between the two clubs last night - emerging in recent hours, but what is the current state of play with regards to this deal? football.london takes a look.
Perhaps what is good news for Arsenal is that Luiz has just one year remaining on his deal at Villa Park and could be available for as little as £15m, with manager Steven Gerrard not playing down the possibility of a deadline day switch for the Brazilian. "I am not in control of that. There are more than two people in control of that, and I am certainly not one of them," the Villa boss said.
"That will be Douglas, that will be his agent, that will be what happens. I would like to keep him, he is a fantastic player. I have made that abundantly clear. We are not in a position where we need to lose our top players, but at the same time, Douglas has got a year to go, and it is one of those really touchy situations where the club has to do what is best for the club, not necessarily what is best for me."
However, sources at Villa have stated that the club's stance, at the time of writing, is that Luiz will not be sold, although it remains to be seen if this will change throughout the day as history indicates anything can happen during the final hours on deadline day.
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