The bold £35m signing that could guarantee Arsenal embark on fresh title challenge next season

Arsenal are in the process of spending a dizzying amount of money this summer, all in the name of keeping pace with the mighty Manchester City - £105m on Declan Rice, £65m for Kai Havertz, £40m on Jurriën Timber, and so on. But for all that these signings will likely improve a team that has already come on in leaps and bounds, there are still some holes to fill if they want to be on a par with City, and they shouldn’t be too proud to raid Mikel Arteta’s former club once more to plug at least one of those gaps…

Arsenal have two fundamental problems – at least, they will only have two if the rebuilt midfield works as promised. The first is the central striker, with Gabriel Jesus as hit-and-miss at the Emirates as he was at the Etihad, Leandro Trossard decent but by no means a natural goalscorer and Eddie Nketiah struggling after a flash of form when he first deputised for the injured Jesus in the middle of the season.

A 20-goal striker would be lovely, but with so much money spent elsewhere (and with the small handful of first-rate strikers on the market going for enormous sums) the Gunners will likely trust that Jesus can find a little more composure in front of goal for the 2023/24 season. It’s more realistic that Arsenal sort out their other little problem – left-back.

Since joining from City last summer, Oleksandr Zinchenko has had some superb patches of form mixed in with some rather less impressive little runs. Now, with Kieran Tierney likely to leave, Arsenal will be short-handed in a key position – and Zinchenko’s experience in midfield may well be called upon too if reports that both Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey are departing prove to be true. Another left-back could well make a big difference in another tight title run-in.

Arsenal have been linked with a move for Real Valladolid’s young full-back Iván Fresneda, a player with plenty of potential but who is likely at the level only of a strong back-up as it stands (you can read more about Fresneda courtesy of The Wonderkid Files). If they want a player who can make the difference now, and beef out an area of the squad which is beginning to look a little thin, they could do an awful lot worse than look at a player who’s firmly on the transfer market and has five domestic titles to his name – João Cancelo.

Cancelo’s fall from grace in Manchester has been swift and stunning, of course. In the autumn he was an essential cog in Pep Guardiola’s machine, one of City’s best and most consistent performers. By winter he was being shipped out to Bayern Munich after falling out with the coaching staff – and now, come the summer, he’s out on a limb and with his agent instructed to find a new employer. The asking price, supposedly, is in the region of £35m.

Cancelo may or may not have attitudinal problems, but they didn’t stop him winning a sack load of trophies at City and Juventus, and nor did they prevent him for providing the blueprint for the modern inverted full-back. Arteta, having been his coach for a few years at the Etihad, will know all about the man and whether his character is a serious concern or not – and given that Arsenal were linked heavily with a move for the Portuguese man back in May, you’d assume that their Spanish coach doesn’t have too many qualms in that department. The transfer talk has cooled as Arsenal address more urgent matters, but with Cancelo reportedly being left out of City’s pre-season tour, the time to get on with negotiations may well be coming up soon.

Cancelo may have fallen out of favour, but as a player he remains a cut above. At 29 years of age, he is at his prime and presents a huge attacking threat as well as a being a reliable defensive performer. Even with the figures from his frustrating spell in Germany thrown in, Cancelo was still one of Europe’s best performing full-backs in almost every offensive metric. Very few comparable players get the ball forward more, or with more precision, and very few generate as many chances as he does while offering defensive solidity at the same time. Cancelo is a world-class performer.

There’s also no reason that his inverted role shouldn’t work at Arsenal either. Gabriel Martinelli, likely to continue as the first choice left-sided forward in the coming campaign, is just as comfortable hugging the touchline as he is cutting inside, and shouldn’t have any problems staying outside of Cancelo’s forward runs. Tactically, it looks like a sound fit, especially with a head coach who knows exactly what’s needed to make it all work.

The sale of Kieran Tierney alone should cover the fee and would represent a massive upgrade. Arsenal may have laid the foundations for their resurgence on young players but when chances to strike cut-price deals for proven performers at the peaks of their careers come up, this is the time to make it happen – when they know they could be just a couple of good signings away from mounting a very serious title challenge indeed. And Cancelo knows exactly what it takes to win the Premier League.

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With most of Arsenal’s most expensive and important business on the brink of completion, it’s time to reignite the chase for a player who could make a staggering difference to a team still in need of that little extra spark. Cancelo could be everything Arsenal want and a little more on top – and they should do everything they can to get him to come to the Emirates.