Chambers to go on loan & transfer latest

"We are working on the deals. We are not close enough to announce to you today that they will sign for us. Will we sign anybody before the end of the transfer window? I am 99% confident."

Arsène Wenger 26.8.2016

This would have been music to the ears of Arsenal supporters the world over. Gooners have been more than patient in waiting for new players to join so even just a few more days will be agonising. It seems Arsenal are closing in on Mustafi at centre-back and to Arsenal's credit, their determination to get value for money will see them save up to £15m. Wenger is famous for sticking to his guns when it comes to player valuation and perhaps this tactic has hindered Arsenal in the past but it has worked out well for once.

Signing a new centre-back to partner Koscielny, help tutor Rob Holding and battle with Mertesacker and Gabriel when they return means that Calum Chambers will find game time even harder to come by. The young defender is in desperate need to play in order to progress and Wenger has hinted that the addition of Mustafi could see him go on loan.

As it stands it is hard to say if that's a good idea as even with Mustafi we still have two injured centre-backs and one injury to the remaining three with Chambers on loan would put unnecessary pressure on Arsenal. Perhaps it is better to wait until January when we have a fuller roster but if he is not used during that time it would have been a wasted opportunity to get him some experience. There are no right answers in situations such as these so we will just have to accept the outcome of whatever happens.

Mustafi, Holding and Xhaka could be joined by Lucas Pérez. You can be forgiven if you had not heard of him until very recently. He's not the big name many would have wanted, nor does he have a spectaular scoring record but he is experienced, fit, fairly priced and can hold the ball up reasonably well. He isn't a carbon copy of Giroud, if anything he's cut from similar cloth to Lukas Podolski.

It is a slight concern that Lucas was deemed not good enough earlier in the window but at this stage we need bodies and £17m is punt money in the modern market. Jamie Vardy was being considered because of his price more than his scoring record and as another speedster Lucas may well grow into his role at Arsenal and prove the initial scout judgement wrong.

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