[Video] Player confirms Arsenal move after arriving in London to undergo medical

The January transfer window is in full swing so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip from around the globe. Today, Pablo Mari is set to undergo his medical with Arsenal…

Pablo Mari has confirmed he’s excited about joining Arsenal after arriving in London to undergo his medical ahead of an initial loan move from Flamengo. 

Mikel Arteta has been on the look out for defensive reinforcements this month after Calum Chambers was ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee ligament injury while Shkodran Mustafi has been linked with a move away from the club following a string of error-prone performances.

Shakhtar Donetsk centre-back Mykola Matviyenko has been strongly linked with Arsenal in recent days but the Ukrainian international will reportedly cost around £30m so we’ve been looking at cheaper alternatives.

Mari has now emerged as our prime target as Sky Sports News are one of several media outlets reporting that he’s flown in to London to undergo a medical ahead of an initial loan move to Arsenal from Flamengo.

The report says Arsenal will have the option to make the move permanent at the end of the season if the loan works out but the Daily Mail suggests it could be a permanent switch this month after we agreed a £7.5m deal.

Mari was spotted arriving at Heathrow Airport with Arsenal technical director Edu on Saturday afternoon and when asked by Goal journalist Charles Watts if he was excited to join Arsenal, the defender confirmed the move by saying ‘yeah, of course’.

Pablo Mari has just arrived at Heathrow with Edu and he tell me he is excited to be joining Arsenal.

Medical to take place this weekend. pic.twitter.com/6VY1RM3wJL

— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) January 25, 2020

Mari is now set to undergo his medical this weekend and as long as there aren’t any unexpected problems, the 26-year-old will become Arteta’s first signing since arriving as manager in December.

The left-footed centre-back used to be on the books at Manchester City in 2016 but spent time on loan at Girona, NAC and Deportivo La Coruna before joining Flamengo on a permanent deal last summer.

The Spaniard helped win the Brazilian Serie A title by a whopping 16-point margin and win the Copa Libertadores while he played against Liverpool during Flamengo’s narrow 1-0 defeat in the World Club Cup final last month.

Mari stands at 6ft 3″ tall so he’ll add some height to the Arsenal back four but it will be interesting to see how he adapts to life in the Premier League. I suppose he can’t do any worse than Mustafi so hopefully Mari helps tighten things up at the back during the second half of the season.