Arsenal should reignite interest in long-term transfer target to become title challengers

Arteta not getting carried away over Arsenal's early season form

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Arsenal’s young attack has come flying out of the blocks this season. The Gunners’ 3-0 dismantling of AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium secured three successive wins to start a campaign for the first time since 2004. In the final two weeks of the summer transfer window, Mikel Arteta could reignite the club’s interest in a former target to solidify their title credentials.

Arteta has started the season with at least two first-team options in each position at the head of his 4-2-3-1 system. But £72million flop Nicolas Pepe looks set to end his miserable stint at the Emirates Stadium by joining Nice on a season-long loan.

His exit could nudge Arsenal to pursue a winger before the September 1 transfer deadline amid links to Wolves’ Pedro Neto and Villarreal’s Yeremy Pino. But an emerging potential target has started the Premier League campaign in an electric fashion.

Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha has been heavily linked with the Gunners after returning to Selhurst Park from Manchester United in 2015. And adding the 29-year-old to an already cohesive attack could turn Arsenal from top-four hopefuls to title challengers.

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Zaha started the campaign as one of Palace’s best players in Arsenal’s 2-0 triumph before scoring the opener in a 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield. On Saturday, he added his second and third of the season in a 3-1 win over Aston Villa.

Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus currently comfortably make up Arteta’s first-choice attack. But adding a player of Zaha’s quality to the likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Viera, and Eddie Nketiah could propel Arsenal to the next level.

Is that level battling alongside Manchester City and Liverpool? Early performances make it a difficult question to dispute.

Zaha would unlikely snub a switch to north London either. He recently revealed he talked to Unai Emery about an Arsenal move in 2019, with the Spanish coach saying he’d love to have him. But despite the mutual feeling, the Gunners opted for Zaha’s Ivorian teammate Pepe instead.

In April, Zaha told Jamie Carragher’s podcast: “I had a conversation with the manager actually. [Unai] Emery was just like, ‘We don’t really need to go through much’. He said he’d seen me play [and] he knows I can change games at any time and stuff like that. He was like, ‘Yeah, we’d love to have you’, and I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to come’.”

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