Edu wins Arsenal’s £38m transfer battle leaving Premier League rivals facing financial disaster – Tom Canton



Arsenal were linked with a whole host of creative midfielders in the summer. The club eventually signed Martin Odegaard from Real Madrid after the Norwegian enjoyed a successful six-month loan spell with the team.

However, Arsenal looked to have gone hard early for then Norwich City midfielder Emi Buendia. The Gunners lost out on the Argentine with Aston Villa securing his services. The 24-year-old targeted to help with the inevitable departure of Jack Grealish.

Many Gunners fans had set their minds of Buendia becoming the new creative force at Arsenal but others highlighted his uninspiring sole season in the English top-flight with the Canaries during the 2019/20 campaign. So far, these look to be the individuals proven right.

Buendia has recorded just one goal and one assist so far. The diminutive player set up Ollie Watkins in the Sunday evening loss to West Ham. Villa were well beaten losing 4-1 at home to David Moyes’ impressive Hammers side.

Arsenal meanwhile have seen a whole shift in formation with a variation of a 4-4-2 taking shape with Alexandre Lacazette dropping into an unorthodox number 10 role but supporting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the attack.

Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka have been masterful in the wide areas with no clear spot for Buendia.

So much so that Odegaard has struggled to regain his place in the team since losing it, ironically, against Aston Villa just two league games ago.

In the 3-1 home win over Villa, Buendia was uninfluential on the game. Arsenal’s improving defence kept the Argentine very quiet and gave Arteta much to be happy about.

Arteta was asked about the club’s pursuit of Buendia prior to the match with the Birmingham-based club but failed to divulge any info on the summer plans.

“I never disclose the players that we were interested in, and I’m not going to do that now,” said Arteta.

Not exactly a denial but very typical from the secretive coach. Following perfectly in the footsteps of his former manager Arsene Wenger.

Buendia may go on to have a great rest of the season, however, at present Arteta has no reason to be thinking about the missed opportunity with the chase for a European place very much on and Villa just 3 points above the drop.

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