The genius £42m raid that could see Arsenal close the gap on Man City even further

It nearly worked once before, why couldn’t it again? If Arsenal aren’t careful they’re going to get a reputation for pocketing Manchester City’s hand-me-downs with view to repurposing them for their own nefarious schemes.

Last summer it was Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko who swapped the Etihad for the Emirates to near-emphatic effect, and if reports are to be believed, the lesser-spotted Kalvin Phillips could soon be joining the duo in north London - provided the Gunners get their way.

As per Spanish outlet Fichajes, Mikel Arteta has taken it upon himself to find a replacement for velvet-slippered hologram Jorginho, and is prepared to launch a ‘winter offensive’ to lure Phillips away from Manchester. It is understood that the England international, who has clocked just 760 minutes of first team football since signing for City from Leeds United last July, is starting to question whether his long-term future may lie somewhere other than M11. No flies on him.

Evidently, Phillips, who cost City around £42 million, is in need of some kind of change, and while Rodri’s current ban for chokeslamming Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White last weekend has afforded him a temporary opportunity to strut his stuff, the likely reality is that genuine openings in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI are going to remain at a premium. A transfer, then, feels like a more sustainable solution to reinvigorate his ailing career, and few clubs could offer him the kind of lateral move that Arsenal would.

For the Gunners’ part, signing a player of Phillips’ ilk would represent a considerable boon to their strength in depth. Given the stagnancy of his recent past, it can be easy to forget exactly why City were compelled to sign the midfielder in the first place. But during his time with boyhood club Leeds, Phillips was nothing short of exemplary. His instinctive disruptiveness was only eclipsed by his remarkable range of distribution, and whether it was as a deep-lying playmaker, or a slightly more advanced box-to-box engine room general, he shone brightly and consistently.

Players like Phillips don’t become poor overnight, they just need time and faith to show what they can do. Would he necessarily start every match for Arsenal? In truth, potentially not, but he would almost certainly be guaranteed to play more regularly than he currently does. Hell, if he played any less we’d probably see his face turning up on the side of milk cartons.

The only obvious sticking point, then, is City themselves. It was one thing to conveniently offload a couple of fringe names to Arsenal when the Gunners could barely cobble together a tilt at the top four. But since then, the champions have been burnt. Nobody expected Arteta’s men to run City as close as they did in the Premier League last season, and there are is no reason to believe that they won’t be there or thereabouts again this term.

With that in mind, would Etihad chiefs acquiesce to selling any player to Arsenal at the present moment in time, let alone one who represents a notable improvement on what they already have in reserve? Perhaps not. If, however, the Gunners can find a way of convincing City to part company with Phillips, this could be a move that hugely benefits both player and club.