According to Spanish news outlet, El Desmarque, Arsenal are looking to sign Real Betis defender, Aissa Mandi on loan by the January transfer deadline with an option to buy for £26m next summer.
Unai Emery has scouted the 26-year-old and wants him to take over Hector Bellerin’s spot on the right flank. The latter picked up a gruesome injury in the 2-0 win over Chelsea earlier this month and this has already started to affect the Gunners.
Arsenal lost the consecutive FA Cup 4th Round tie against Manchester United with a flakey Ainsley Maitland-Niles in the right-back spot. To lay out even more misery for the Arsenal faithful, both Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Laurent Koscielny had to be forced off the pitch during the 1-3 Emirates with suspected long-term injuries.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men very swiftly exposed how deficient Arsenal’s defence truly is. Now with 3 of the team’s starting defensive figures injured, Emery has to find a quick solution in order to keep the hopes of a top-four Premier League finish alive.
Mandi is a top defensive figure for his team with 26 appearances made this season. He also has 25 caps for Algeria along with 1 international goal to his name.
The Spaniard usually plays at right-back but can feature from the central spots as well. The biggest hiccup lies in Betis’ hesitation to let go of one of their key players at this point of the season.
Arsenal’s lack of transfer funds is halting them from making any January additions just like in the cases of Ever Banega, Denis Suarez and Malcom.
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