Arsenal set to swoop for defensive midfield star: The missing piece of the jigsaw?

Arsenal have quite a few problems in the last few years and their own fans will tell you a lost of things going wrong at the club. While Arsene Wenger has lost his touch in the last few years, the absence of a balanced squad has played a part in the team doing so badly in the league.

Though Arsenal have won a few cups under Wenger in the last few years, to excel in the league, they need the consistency. Arsenal finished fourth quite a few times but they haven’t even managed to do that recently.

Arsenal recently allowed Alexis Sanchez to leave in a swap deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan and signed Bundesliga goal-machine Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. However, the two had slow starts. With the likes of Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere in the team, however, the new signings could fire next season as they’ll have a full preseason.

Arsenal have substantial attacking resources, but it’s the defence and the midfield that has come under the spotlight more often than not. They have ageing defenders at the heart of the defence and though the likes of Koscielny and Mustafi occasionally showed their brilliance, the absence of a midfielder who can shield their backline has affected them during the bigger games.

In a bid to do something about that, they have been linked with Leicester City central midfielder Wilfried Ndidi according to reports.

Wilfred Ndidi – fact file

Leicester’s title winning season saw N’Golo Kante dominate the midfield with his tenacity and the Foxes missed that after his departure. They signed Nampalys Mendy to replace Kante but he failed to impress, which led the club to sign Ndidi from Genk in the January transfer window last season.

Ndidi struggled to deal with the pace of the game after joining in January last year but following a full preseason under his belt, he has impressed this in the ongoing campaign.

Predominantly a holding midfielder, Ndidi would be a smashing addition to the Gunners. Tackling is his forte; he has mustered 4.2 tackles a game which is pretty impressive. Arsenal need someone exactly like that as Granit Xhaka has been woeful when it comes to defending.

The Gunners like keeping the ball and look for openings but are susceptible on the break as they don’t have someone who can break the flow of the game when they don’t have the ball. Ndidi could help with that.

Stats via Whoscored