Arsenal eye January swoop to sign Kalvin Phillips from Man City

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is turning to former employers Manchester City once again as he eyes a January swoop for Kalvin Phillips, according to Fichajes.

Arsenal have made an unbeaten start to the 2023/24 season, finding themselves in third place in the Premier League’s standings after winning the Community Shield in August. They also got off to the perfect start in the Champions League with a 4-0 win over PSV Eindhoven on matchday one.

With the young squad arguably exceeding expectations for the better part of Arteta’s tenure as head coach, the Gunners must now look to secure some much-deserved silverware this season. They were agonizingly short of the Premier League title last season and are already proving to be contenders this time around.

In a bid to strengthen their squad, Arsenal are looking to add Kalvin Phillips from Manchester City, as per Fichajes. The former Leeds United star has failed to earn consistent minutes under Pep Guardiola, thereby prompting talk of a potential switch this winter.

Arsenal have previously signed Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from the Citizens are now reportedly ready to swoop on their rivals for a third time in the January window.

PHILLIPS TICKS ALL THE BOXES:

Phillips would not be expecting to have a key role at the Emirates Stadium straight away, but it is fair to say that the Englishman will have a significantly higher playing time as compared to Man City, where matters have only become harder for him this season following the arrivals of Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes.

Arsenal’s need of the hour is a defensive midfielder for more than one reason and it isn’t hard to understand why Kalvin Phillips is being targeted. He has experience in a very similar tactical setup as that of Arteta having worked with Guardiola for over a year now, while he has proven himself to be successful in the Premier League too during his time over at Leeds.

On the other hand, the north Londoners haven’t been able to rely on Thomas Partey’s services as much as they would want due to persistent fitness issues surrounding the Ghanian. Jorginho meanwhile is severely underperforming and Mo Elneny is nothing more than a squad player, which leaves Arteta with only Declan Rice as a reliable top class holding midfielder to choose from.

Partey’s and Jorginho’s problems have also forced the Arsenal boss to play a less secure 4-3-3 formation as opposed to the 4-2-3-1, which provides support to his volatile backline. Neither the Italian, nor Elneny proved worthy double pivots to Rice during pre-season and January seems like a reasonable time to explore the transfer market.

From a financial point of view as well, Phillips wouldn’t be a player that Arsenal would need to break the bank for. His situation with Manchester City is well-documented and with the Sky Blues already under the pump regarding FFP, they would probably be happy to sell Phillips for less than the £42 million they paid for him one year ago.

It is expected that Arsenal will be in contention for the league come the second half of the season and are also very likely to progress further in their Champions League campaign. With the domestic cup fixtures also expected to come thick and fast, they certainly wouldn’t want a bout of injuries to kill their silverware hopes like last season, and not least in a position where they are already undermanned.