Transfer Centre

How Arsenal could line up with Ousmane Dembele

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 25 May 2020

Amid reports linking Arsenal with a cut-price move for Ousmane Dembele, Sports Mole looks at how the Gunners could line up with the Barcelona winger in their ranks.

While the coronavirus lockdown has undeniably posed financial difficulties to every club in the world, it has also thrown up opportunities for those still capable of spending money.

Other clubs are now in greater need of funds through player sales, which in turn has forced them to slash asking prices in the knowledge that mega-money deals are unlikely to be commonplace again for some time now.

One of the biggest bargains could come from Barcelona, who are reportedly willing to consider offers of as low as £37m for winger Ousmane Dembele - just three years after bringing him to Camp Nou for £112.5m.

That price drop of a whopping 67% is understood to have alerted the attention of Arsenal and Manchester United as they look for cut-price attacking reinforcements ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.

Here, Sports Mole looks at how Arsenal could line up should they win the race for the Frenchman's signature.

Dembele is capable of playing all across the forward line, but he is most at home on either wing and, with club-record signing Nicolas Pepe on the right, the left looks to be his most likely position at the Emirates Stadium.

The 23-year-old may well be seen as a direct replacement for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has often featured from the left for Arsenal and has consistently been their top scorer from that position.

The captain is out of contract next summer and Arsenal could therefore look to cash in on him this year, but if they are able to keep him then he would surely be first choice through the middle, ahead of Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah.

On paper that would leave Arsenal with one of the most fearsome attacks in the division; Mesut Ozil has enjoyed something of a resurgence under Mikel Arteta while Pepe still has plenty of time to live up to his price tag despite a relatively slow start to life at the club.

One of the frustrations should the Gunners sign Dembele will be their refusal once again to make defensive reinforcements their main priority.

Arsenal have been fairly well stacked in the forward department for a long time now without investing anywhere near as much defensively, where they arguably need it most.

Arteta has improved the defensive side of things, though, with Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi having been transformed from players with no future at the club to regular members of the starting XI once again.

Dani Ceballos is likely to leave at the end of his loan spell, while Lucas Torreira has also been linked with a move away, leaving Matteo Guendouzi as the most likely partner for Xhaka should no other signings be made.