In the following fortnight, Matt Turner and Auston Trusty sealed permanent exits while a number of stars saw loan moves sanctioned with Kieran Tierney joining Real Sociedad as the marquee move. Within the next 24 hours, Folarin Balogun transfer to Monaco and Nuno Tavares' season-long loan to Nottingham Forest are expected to be confirmed.
With Tavares and Tierney moving temporarily for the 2023/24 season, along with Jurrien Timber's long-term injury, Arsenal now have a significantly lower number of options in defence. However, no obvious target has been identified by Arteta and Edu with transfer guru Fabrizio Romano providing an update on what the Gunners may do in the final days of the window.
"I've had a lot of Arsenal fans asking me if there is a plan to replace Kieran Tierney and Nuno Tavares," he said via CaughtOffside. "For now I think it’s an open situation - Arsenal are always acting with same strategy in this kind of cases, they sign a player if they believe it’s the right opportunity. There are no talks as of today but let’s keep it open until the end, based on outgoings."
Interestingly, Romano revealed that if the right opportunity is on the table, Arsenal will strike and their London rivals could have alerted them to the perfect one. On Tuesday, the Italian journalist revealed Tottenham made contact with Barcelona to learn of the conditions needed to sign Ansu Fati on loan.
It was also noted that Chelsea were presented with the chance to sign Fati as Mauricio Pochettino seeks to bolster his attacking options. However, with Spurs currently appearing focused on Brennan Johnson and Chelsea looking at Palmer, Fati could be the aforementioned 'right opportunity' for Arsenal.
After the £200million spending spree, signing a new right-sided attacker was seen as something Arsenal were looking into, however nothing materialised with the only concrete option in Ajax star Mohammed Kudus instead joining West Ham.Fati predominantly plays on the left, but can also play centrally and on the right, meaning he can provide cover for Bukayo Saka. The 20-year-old also has Champions League experience and that factor could actually play as an advantage for the Gunners over Chelsea and Tottenham.
A disappointing 2022/23 season for the 'big six' duo saw them finish outside of the European places and with Arsenal in the Champions League, Fati is sure to favour a move to Emirates Stadium if all three London clubs make a move, because he can still play at peak of European football.
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