Patrick Vieira could help Arsenal to beat Tottenham to Houssem Aouar with £20m favour

Arsenal: First fixtures of 2021/22 Premier League season

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Patrick Vieira could help Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to finally bring Houssem Aouar to the Emirates this summer as the Gunners look to significantly strengthen their midfield. The Spanish coach is overseeing a rebuild of his first-team squad in hope of qualifying for the Champions League next season.

While Albert Sambi Lokonga is expected to join from Anderlecht for around £15million plus add-ons, Arsenal still want more new talent in midfield on top of the 21-year-old Belgian.

Matteo Guendouzi has gone to Marseille, Granit Xhaka appears likely to join Roma, Martin Odegaard won’t be coming back from Real Madrid and Lucas Torreira, Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles could all move on too.

Aouar has long been on Arsenal’s radar and the 23-year-old is again on their shortlist of options this summer as a player to potentially join Thomas Partey in a new-look midfield for the north Londoners.

But ESPN say that despite being keen on Aouar, Arsenal will have to offload players before a formal offer is made for the Lyon man.

It’s claimed that the French outfit could accept as little as £21.3m (€25m) for Aouar this summer, which is because of financial issues at the club that have arisen from failing to qualify for the Champions League.

But with money tight at Arsenal and the club having signed Nuno Tavares for around £7m while closing in on Lokonga, they need to bring money in.

Paris Saint-Germain are among the other clubs who could also explore a swoop for Aouar but the Frenchman is said to be open to a Premier League switch.

Crucially, he would not rule out joining Arsenal even though they have no European football to offer in the upcoming 2021-22 campaign.

Arsenal clearly rate Aouar highly having made a reported bid of £29.9m (€35m) last summer, only to be told by the Ligue 1 club that anything lower than £51m (€60m) would be rejected.

Now, the midfielder – who can play as a box-to-box, as a No 10 or even out on the left – is available for half that asking price, and at a time when Arsenal need attack-minded quality in midfield.

Arsenal will undoubtedly be weighing up an approach for the one-cap France international, who has also been linked to Liverpool previously, but they must first offload players to raise funds.

Another Frenchman who knows what it takes to be a box-to-box midfielder impacting games on both sides of the ball for Arsenal is the legendary Vieira, recently installed as the new Crystal Palace manager.

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In his new role, Aouar’s countryman is keen to sign a new striker and it’s said that Nice’s Kasper Dolberg and Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah are his main targets.

Academy graduate Nketiah, out of contract at the Emirates in a year’s time, is attainable at around £20m with Folarin Balogun pressing for a first-team role after a new contract.

And new Palace boss Vieira raiding Arsenal for the 22-year-old would be ideal for the Gunners, who could then press on with a formal bid for Aouar thanks to the influx of cash.

Reports from France say Tottenham and Atletico Madrid will also compete with Arsenal to prise Aouar from Lyon.

Spurs too are expected to oversee a reshape of their side under new manager Nuno Espirito Santo, and losing out on Aouar to their bitter rivals would be a tough pill to swallow for Arteta and co.

Yet if a deal can quickly be agreed with Palace for Nketiah, who Arsenal are ready to part ways with, then they can get the jump on Spurs as they prioritise acquiring defenders with Bologna’s Takehiro Tomiyasu expected to be one of them.

And adding Aouar to their midfield options for such an affordable price would be brilliant business for Arsenal at a time when they need value for money with every signing they make.

Vieira rightly remains revered at Arsenal for his exploits as a player but now as a manager he might be able to give them a huge helping hand in their attempts to upgrade their midfield – and he’ll have plenty of delighted Gunners in his Twitter mentions if he does.

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