Arsenal are still on the hunt for a new creative midfielder this month, football.london understands.
The Gunners, who were beaten 2-0 by Brentford in their Premier League season opener on Friday evening, want to add another creative attacker to their ranks to help the likes of Emile Smith Rowe.
James Maddison is a target for Mikel Arteta, but negotiations over the Leicester City midfielder are understood to be 'very slow', which could be to do with his £60million price tag that Arsenal are reluctant to pay.
Martin Odegaard, who spent the second half of the 2020/21 season on loan at the Emirates Stadium, is also a target as Arteta eyes a permanent deal for the Norway international.
football.london reported last month that Los Blancos are likely to sell Odegaard before the transfer window concludes at the end of the month, with the midfielder valued at a reported £34m.
The Norway captain is understood to be concerned about his role in the Spanish capital, with new boss Carlo Ancelotti likely to prefer Casemiro, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric to the former Arsenal loanee.
Arsenal are set to make a formal offer for the 22-year-old after he made his desire to leave Real Madrid clear, football.london reported on Friday.
Now, Real Madrid may have dropped the biggest hint yet that Odegaard is not part of their plans this season, with the Norwegian left out of their 21-man squad to face Alaves for their La Liga season opener later this evening.
Ancelotti's squad includes midfielders such as Modric, Casemiro, Fede Valverde, Lucas Vazquez, Isco and Antonio Blanco, but there is no sign of Odegaard.
Speaking towards the end of last season, Arteta confirmed that Arsenal would try and sort out a permanent deal for Odegaard.
The Gunners boss said: “We have a very clear and strong opinion on what we would like to do.
“He’s not our player. We’ll have discussions in the next few weeks, but first of all we need to respect that he’s a Real Madrid player.
“We’ll have those communications. We’ve tried to make everything that we could to get Martin performing for the team, which I think he’s done.
“He has adapted really well to our way of playing and to our football. Hopefully we have given him the hope and the feeling this could be a good place for him."
When asked if he was confident Odegaard would stay at the Emirates, the Arsenal head coach replied: "I do not know. It is not in our hands, I don’t know.”
