Arsenal are tipped to sign a new midfielder before the end of the transfer window, with Aston Villa's Douglas Luiz heavily linked with Mikel Arteta's side.
With Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny both currently nursing injuries, Arsenal are left short of options in midfield. Youri Tielemans has been linked with the Gunners all summer, but Luiz is the latest name to be rumoured with a move to North London.
football.london understands that Luiz is a target for Arsenal, whilst Sky Sports have reported a 'mystery club' have bid £20m for the midfielder today. Luiz scored in Villa's 2-1 defeat against Arsenal on Wednesday night, and the 24-year-old's ability to play both as a defensive and box-to-box midfielder suits Arteta's profile well.
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So, if Arsenal were to bring the Brazilian to the Emirates Stadium this season, how could he perform? Will he help add more competition to the midfield and push the Gunners to a trophy?
We 'signed' Douglas Luiz for Arsenal on deadline day
To set up the simulation, we used the Football Manager 2022 editor to transfer Luiz to Arsenal. To get the most realistic results possible, we updated the Gunners with the latest squad and the Premier League with the latest results.
Luiz became a regular in Arteta's side, making 41 appearances in his first season with 36 of those starts. Luiz was predominantly used in the Premier League and the Europa League, with the midfielder also registering one goal and five assists in those two competitions.
The Brazilian was mostly used as a defensive midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation, and in the holding role, Luiz registered a 79% tackle success and a 94% pass completion rate. When compared to the rest of the Gunners squad, his pass completion rate was the highest in the team.
Luiz made the second most appearances compared to the other Arsenal midfielders, with only Martin Odegaard featuring more. The Norwegian ended the season with the most assists at Arsenal and the second highest average rating, only behind Gabriel Jesus (7.45).
At the end of the 2022/23 season, Football Manager 2022 put together an overall best Arsenal XI, based on performances, statistics and other metrics. This is what Gunners' best XI looked like at the end of the 2022/23 season as predicted by Football Manager 2022:
Full Arsenal best XI: (4-3-3): Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Luiz, Partey; Saka, Jesus, Smith-Rowe.
Luiz made the Arsenal best XI in a three-man midfield, with Partey and Martin Odegaard also included. Granit Xhaka missed out, as did William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli - despite the latter scoring 14 goals in the simulation.
Arsenal's results with Douglas Luiz
Arsenal had a very impressive Premier League campaign, challenging for the title up until the last few games of the season. Ultimately, the Gunners fell just short, finishing third in the table.
A poor run of games in February and March saw Arsenal lose four consecutive matches, dropping out of first place after a dominating start to the season. By the end of the campaign, Arteta's side had lost nine, finishing just four points behind Manchester City in first.
Liverpool finished second, losing out on the title by one point once again. Arsenal tallied 77 points in total, also ending the season as the third top scorers in the league and with the third-best defence.
Despite missing out on the title, Arsenal did win silverware in the 2022/23 season, winning the Carabao Cup trophy. Second-half strikes from Jesus and Martinelli saw Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-0 in the final, despite Xhaka's red card. Xhaka was also sent off for Arsenal in the FA Cup, with the Gunners losing 3-1 to Manchester City in the fourth round. Arteta's side had a good run in the Europa League as well as they reached the semi-final, but a 3-1 aggregate defeat saw Atalanta progress.
Overall, this simulation suggests that if if Arsenal were to make a move for Luiz, the midfielder could fit Arsenal and Arteta's system perfectly, fitting into the squad and becoming a regular for the Gunners. His addition added a high level of competition and depth to the Arsenal midfield as they challenged for the Premier League and won a trophy in the simulation.
Would you like to see Douglas Luiz sign for the Gunners this summer? Let us know in the comments!
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