Arsenal are now front-runners to sign Willian.
This afternoon, Arsenal were thought to make a huge breakthrough in their quest to sign Willian from Chelsea. According to Sky Sports, they are now leading the chase to sign him as they have offered him a three-year deal, a factor that the Brazilian has been holding out for.
This could be a revelation as Arsenal have been putting off the deal for some time now. However, I’m certan that finishing the season on a high and winning the FA Cup would have given the board some motivation to get some signings in.
This would be the Gunners third signing under Mikel Arteta, as the January transfer window loanees Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari both made their deals permanent a few months ago. This is not bad at all, and shows that the board are putting trust into Arteta as a manager and rightly so given his cup triumph.
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I shan’t get my hopes up about Willian until I have seen him play in an Arsenal shirt. I was always apprehensive about the deal going ahead, but perhaps that’s just my pessimism. Once he is unveiled as an Arsenal player, I will get behind him 100%.
He is a good addition to the club since he suits Arteta’s new philosophy, which places a lot of emphasis on direct wingers; Nicolas Pepe being one of those and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang filling the void on the left-hand side.
If Willian is to be a regular feature in the Arsenal XI, then I would wonder what this means for Alexandre Lacazette. In Arteta’s system, only one attacker can play through the centre and that simply has to be Aubameyang given his goal input. I’m certain that this will be worked out with time.
Do you think Arsenal will sign Willian this summer?