BREAKING: Arsenal are one-step closer to dream Kylian Mbappe transfer as agreement have been put in place and he is set to become the highest paid player in the Premier League history

Arsenal one-step closer to dream transfer as stunning Kylian Mbappe agreement possible

Arsenal transfer news with the latest rumours and reports from the January market including a fresh football.london perspective

There was one clear standout moment that cemented the thought in the minds of Arsenal fans against Fulham. Being countered at Craven Cottage to concede an equaliser having taken an early lead, the failure to gold the ball up in attack before being swiftly cut through made it all clear. The Gunners need a new striker.

It has been 56 shots now for the last two goals scored by Arsenal including 30 against West Ham. Here, Bukayo Saka was uncharacteristically poor in front of goal despite opening the scoring. His blazed half-volley in the second half was the closest Mikel Arteta’s side could get to finding a way back.

It left supporters with calls for Ivan Toney – for anyone who can finish chances – and less than 24 hours later it became apparent that something could be done. Now that the January window has officially opened, there is a one-in-a-lifetime chance to strike a pre-agreement with non-other than Kylian Mbappe.

The Frenchman has just six months left on his deal at Paris Saint-Germain having failed to extend beyond the summer. Although the Ligue 1 giants are seemingly resigned to losing him there is a spanner in the works with reports that they will do anything to not see him head to Real Madrid.

That opens up a door for Arsenal to march in. Here, football.london analyses the possible deal and another story doing the rounds as the window gets going with a bang.

football.london says: It would take a very big shift in Arsenal’s recruitment to go from signing Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu as relative nobodies in 2021 to Kylian Mbappe not even three years later. However, when you go from being top four outcasts to title challengers and Champions League contenders it is something that has been earned.

Mbappe to Arsenal is no longer the complete joke that it could have been before. The stumbling block though, as it is with most of the interested teams across the planet, is his enormous wages.

There’s Kai Havertz at a reported £280,000 per week and then there’s nearly double that for what Mbappe would surely be demanding. If Arsenal can stomach that or even make it work and comply with financial regulations, then it’s a true no-brainer.

Mbappe to Arsenal is no longer the complete joke that it could have been before. The stumbling block though, as it is with most of the interested teams across the planet, is his enormous wages.

There’s Kai Havertz at a reported £280,000 per week and then there’s nearly double that for what Mbappe would surely be demanding. If Arsenal can stomach that or even make it work and comply with financial regulations, then it’s a true no-brainer.

Mbappe isn’t the taller, more physical striker that Arsenal really are crying out for but he is a goal machine who hurts teams in other ways. Maybe that could be argued at being too close to what they have in Gabriel Jesus but unlike the Brazilian, Mbappe is clinical and ruthless.

He has the extra seconds to think about chances, to prepare and to finish, simply because of his speed and smarts. Arteta is the type of coach who might not be behind this due to the superstardom Mbappe has and the work off the ball, but really it cannot be turned down if there’s even a sniff of reaching an early agreement.

From one possible deal that could be made now with a look to the summer to another and reports suggest that Arsenal are also stepping up their pursuit of Sporting CP centre-back Ousmane Diomande. The 20-year-old was a target for the Gunners over the summer and had a bid made for him late on in the window if stories from Portugal are to be believed.

A defensive injury crisis and problems across the backline as a whole later and the player is being looked at once more. It is said that the versatile Ivorian – who would be away at the African Cup of Nations even if he did sign – has seen his family in touch with Arsenal ahead of a potential deal.

Diomande is also a target for Chelsea and several other top European clubs this window, but it is thought any deal may well be more likely to go through in the summer. Diomande has a release clause of around £69million and can play as a right-back as well as centre-back in a three or four man defence.

football.london says: Arteta has shown he can have a big impact on transfers in the past and was crucial in bringing both Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to north London as two of the most successful bits of work in recent years. He has also been credited with playing a key role in swaying Declan Rice’s mind too.

Although it is not clear just what stage of talks with Diomande’s family Arsenal are at, it is a signal of their intent. Ideally the defender would come in as soon as possible given the issues at the back but if he is their top target then preparing for the summer is a solid enough secondary option.

The issue is that by that time Jurrien Timber will be back and the pair do seem to overlap in their skillset and positional versatility too.

Ben White’s struggles at right-back this season along with uncertainty over how long the Zinchenko experiment can go on for, Tomiyasu remains a constant fitness liability too, could make the Diomande deal perfect for the summer though.