It's been a busy week for Arsenal who saw their winning run come to an end with a 1-1 draw against Southampton at St. Mary's Stadium.
The Gunners struggled to take their chances on the south coast, with Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard all failing to hit the back of the net. With that in mind, it felt timely that links have once again resurfaced this week with Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha who will have just six months left on his contract by the time the January transfer window comes around.
With all that going on it felt like the perfect time for a Q&A with our chief Arsenal correspondent Kaya Kaynak. Here football.london takes a look back at some of the highlights from the session.
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Q: Do you know the club's priority for the the upcoming January transfer window? Many talk about a new CM, but the need for a new winger is crucial... we need cover for Saka and Martinelli right? Any names you have heard Arsenal are looking at?
KK: Arsenal were looking to add some firepower to their squad towards the end of last window before injuries forced them to shift focus to a midfielder right at the end. If Mohamed Elneny and Oleksandr Zinchenko recover, you feel they may be tempted to dip into the market and get a forward player to add some firepower. Pedro Neto was the name mentioned in the summer, but with his injury problems at the minute that deal might be unlikely in January, while the club have also tracked Shakhtar's Mykhalo Mudryk.
Q: Would like to ask you about Wilfried Zaha. His contract expires this summer. According to many reports, he is likely to leave Palace at the end of the season for a "big" club. Arsenal have been heavily linked and they are tipped to be in the race to sign him. Can you confirm if Arsenal are interested/monitoring Zaha's situation at the moment? With the club targeting a winger, could Zaha be the answer? He would definitely add character and firepower that Arteta has stated that he wants...
KK: Links between Arsenal and Zaha just don't seem to go away do they! Arsenal are targeting adding more firepower to their ranks as you say, although I can't say I've heard anything about a move for Wilfried Zaha recently. As much as I agree with you that a move for him would be a smart one, there are a few reasons why I'd be surprised if it went ahead. One is that he is going to be 30 very soon. Edu told football.london in an interview that the club are looking to purchase players who have resale values to sustain the project in the future, and even on a free Zaha would not fall into this category most likely.
On top of that there's the wages to consider. Zaha is reported to earn in excess of £100,000 per week at Crystal Palace, which given the recent restructuring of Arsenal's wage budget would put him towards the upper end of what players in the squad are on right now. As a free transfer you would assume he would want significantly more than that which would potentially make things difficult too. I personally can't see Arsenal breaking their wage structure to sign a player who doesn't seem to fit into their model, but you can never say never when it comes to transfers.
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