Mikel Arteta, if he sees someone come available who can improve his team, will do all he can to secure them.
This has never been more apparent than of late, as his spending seems set to surpass £200m as the window rumbles on into July. If he is to end Pep Guardiola's monopoly over English football, there will be no greater opportunity.
Especially if they are the ones to pry Aymeric Laporte from the Etihad too, marking yet another player who could take that well-trodden path down the country.
Reports from Spain late last week have suggested so, with the Gunners having entered the race for the £120k-per-week Spaniard who struggled for game time last term.
Would Aymeric Laporte improve Arsenal?
Although the 29-year-old would only muster 24 appearances across all competitions during that treble-winning campaign, just a few years earlier he was a big favourite of Guardiola's.
The former Barcelona boss even went as far as to brand him "the best left-sided centre-back in the world" at the time.
This kind of pedigree was emphasised through his form in the league during the 2021/22 season, as he maintained a 7.12 average Sofascore rating, which made him the fifth-highest-rated centre-back in the whole of the Premier League and interestingly enough, the second-best left-sided centre-back behind a certain Virgil van Dijk.
What helped elevate these figures was his ball-playing excellence, as he maintained a 95% pass accuracy and a 75% dribble success rate, and tied it up with 1.8 clearances per game too, via Sofascore. That pass success rate just so happened to be the best in the entire top-flight that term, to emphasise Guardiola's claim.
FBref supplements this further, as when compared to other centre-backs across Europe, the UEFA Nations League winner sits in the top 1% for passes attempted, progressive passes and progressive carries per 90.
Combining this kind of power and elegance with William Saliba could immediately form one of the best defensive pairings in world football, and the perfect duo to underpin Arteta's possession-dominant philosophy.Last season saw the young Frenchman maintain a 91% pass accuracy of his own, alongside a stunning 90% dribble success rate. However, his 1.3 tackles and three clearances per game outline him as slightly more capable of nullifying opposition attacks too, via Sofascore.
Standing at 6 foot 2 and 6 foot 4 respectively, but with a confidence on the ball that a diminutive creative midfielder would be proud of, the combination of Laporte and Saliba could underpin a new period of English dominance handed to Arteta by his rival.
Gabriel has done little wrong since moving to the Gunners but in Laporte, the north Londoners would only go up a gear.
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