Unai Emery has reportedly identified Torino centre-back Nicolas N’Koulou as the perfect player to shore up Arsenal’s shaky defence.
The Gunners were thumped 5-1 by Premier League leaders Liverpool just last week before recovering with a better performance and victory over relegation threatened Fulham.
This season Arsenal have looked great going forward, and boast Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang in their ranks, with the former Dortmund striker gunning for the Golden Boot award. But at the back they have leaked goals – 31 in the English top flight, a staggering 15 more than rivals Chelsea who are just one place above them in the table.
Emery splashed the cash on Sokratis in the summer but has reportedly decided to take more action, and has identified N’Koulou as the man to plug the hole at the back, according to Italian outlet Calcio Mercato.
One potential stumbling block for the Gunners in the amount it would take to land the defender, who Torino are understandably keen to hold onto. Emery reminded his players of their defensive duties in a recent press conference, following Arsenal’s win over Fulham. The Spaniard said: “Our challenge now is to improve defensively. The reason may be different things. We have not had every player, because of different injuries.
“Today is the first time we could play with [Laurent] Koscielny, [Shkodran] Mustafi and Sokratis [Papastathopoulos]. Defensively we must find more balance and improve.
“It is one of the things we need to work on, to prepare for the second half of the season. We need to do better in the second half of the season, work on every player, every team, tactically.”