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Arsenal should make an audacious move for Chelsea’s out of favour left-back Emerson Palmieri as they look to solve their issues on the left side of defence, although it won’t be an easy deal to negotiate.
What’s the word, then?
Since arriving at the club from AS Roma back in January for a fee of £17.6m, the Brazilian-born Italy international has struggled for game time under both Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri. He has made just 10 starts for the west London based club since his move, mainly due to the consistently brilliant form of Marcos Alonso.
The 24-year-old does, however, have a goal to his name this season – a crucial equaliser against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup. Despite his lack of action, the full-back is still held in high regard by Blues fans, who would probably not want to see him depart Stamford Bridge.
Why would Arsenal want him?
Well, the Gunners have a bit of an issue in the left-back department. Nacho Monreal is approaching his 33rd birthday and has struggled for fitness so far this season, and has delivered some sub-par showings in his 10 starts across all competitions.
Unai Emery has opted to deploy summer signing Stephan Lichtsteiner, who is a natural right-back, in the position, although the 34-year-old hasn’t convinced, while Sead Kolasinac has started their last two Premier League matches there – even Granit Xhaka has featured at left-back at times.
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The north Londoners’ last Brazilian left-back will have undoubtedly caused nightmares on more than one occasion for those who often travel to the Emirates, so another one coming through the door may trigger some scary memories – for those readers confused, the last one was Andre Santos, and he was abysmal.
In Emerson, however, there is a good player who has a tremendous engine on him to get up and down the flank, whilst his delivery into the box is almost always a good one.
Chelsea may not want to sell to a rival, nor will they want to leave Alonso’s role unchallenged in case of an injury; having said that, the Gunners could do worse than at least test the waters with an opening bid.