Arsenal in talks over deal for £80m England man in HUGE statement of intent: report

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta during a training session at London Colney on September 29, 2023 in St Albans, England.
(Image credit: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Arsenal are in talks over bringing a serious new signing to the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners are still unbeaten in the Premier League, beating incumbent champions Manchester City 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday to end a record of 12 straight league losses against their bogey team. Mikel Arteta's side were roundly praised for their game plan, as the Basque boss bettered his mentor Pep Guardiola for a second time in a row following August's Community Shield.

The result was all the more impressive given that Bukayo Saka didn't play and eventually matchwinner Gabriel Martinelli began the fixture on the bench – but one tactical tweak that Arteta made may have given a huge clue to the future of what his side will look like. 

Gabriel Martinelli celebrates with Arsenal team-mates after scoring a late winner against Manchester City in the Premier League in October 2023.

Arsenal ended a wretched record against Manchester City at the weekend (Image credit: Getty Images)

Gabriel Jesus featured out on the right wing for Arsenal, continuing a pattern of the Brazilian being deployed wide instead of centrally. The move is intriguing, given that TEAMtalk are now linking Ivan Toney with a cross-capital switch more strongly than ever.

The report claims that the "latest conversations between both parties [have been] happening as recently as a few days ago," with the Brentford striker expected to depart the club soon. Chelsea and Tottenham are also interested. 

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Highbury legend Ian Wright has talked up the move, claiming that the England international is the missing piece in the puzzle for his former side, who have lacked firepower from their traditional strikers in recent weeks. 

Jesus is assisted at centre-forward by the likes of Eddie Nketiah and Kai Havertz as options through the middle, but the trio have managed a mere four goals this season in all. Leandro Trossard and Martinelli can both play there; Arsenal sold academy graduate Folarin Balogun in the summer. 

Ivan Toney of Brentford is pictured in the stands during the Premier League match between Brentford and West Ham United at the Gtech Community Stadium on May 14, 2023 in London, England.

Ivan Toney is linked with Arsenal (Image credit: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Toney is thought to be worth around £80 million to Brentford, having netted 63 in 111 appearances for the Bees after joining for just £5m from Peterborough United in 2020. 

The 27-year-old is valued by Transfermarkt to be worth €35m.

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Declan Rice has exclusively revealed to FourFourTwo why he chose to sign for Arsenal this summer.

FFT also caught up with former Arsenal star Aaron Ramsey, who explained why he turned down a move to the Saudi Pro League in favour of re-joining Cardiff City.

Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsdale has been labelled 'f*cking weird' by one of his ex-Gunners teammates.

Mark White
Content Editor

Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.