Report: Chelsea Star On ‘The Verge’ Of Joining Arsenal

Arsenal are reportedly closing in on Gary Cahill to ease our defensive crisis…

Arsenal are reportedly closing in on a loan move for Chelsea defender Gary Cahill as Unai Emery seeks to find answers for our defensive issues this season, reports in Italy suggest.

Italian publication NewsMondo claims that while AC Milan were interested in securing Cahill’s services, they were beaten to the punch by Arsenal in what’s a six-month loan move.

Central defence has been a big issue for us this season despite the plethora of options we had at the start of the campaign.

Rob Holding’s season-ending injury at Manchester United was the first flow we suffered in that position, especially considering that he was arguably our most consistent defender this term.

Laurent Koscielny has returned a shadow of the dominant defender we knew and love following his achilles injury, and it would be rather unfair to expect him to return to his hay-day at 33-years-old.

Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis have also picked up their fair share of niggles and often struggle to produce satisfactory performances, while Dinos Mavropanos hasn’t played a game all season.

Therefore, adding a defender to our ranks in January should be viewed as a priority, though one would hope that the club are seeking a more long-term option.

We’re lacking in quality, as well as depth, at the heart of our defence and temporary solutions such as Cahill will not rectify those issues.

The myth around the January window is that players aren’t available, yet we saw a number of major transfers completed this time last year.

Philippe Coutinho, Virgil Van Dijk, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were among the players to make moves across Europe.

We can add quality in January, but it’ll cost us.