This defender should replace Draxler as Arsenal’s main transfer target

Arsenal have seemingly taken over the mantle of north London rivals Tottenham in this January transfer window as they have been linked with virtually every player from around Europe that could be available.

Dimitar Berbatov and Yohan Cabaye have been mentioned from the Premier League, Alvaro Morata and Antoine Griezmann from Real Madrid and Real Sociedad respectively in Spain, Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon in France and most notably, Julian Draxler for £37m from Schalke in Germany.

Reasons why Draxler would be such a major recruit can be seen here, but the growing feeling is that any deal for the young German will be finalised over the summer.

As for January, it is another French bargain that should be highly interesting Arsene Wenger, with Sebastien Corchia reportedly on the market for a sum of €3.5m.

Through the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Mathieu Flamini (the first time) and Laurent Koscielny currently, Wenger has a proven track record of snaring Frenchmen from the bargain basement.

And Corchia would be another example, given an exceedingly high tackle success rate of 98 per cent this season and the fact that he is Sochaux’s top chance creator, despite playing at right-back.

Right-back could soon become a problem position for Arsenal too, with Bacary Sagna yet to sign an extension to the contract that expires in the summer, although Wenger remains confident that the two parties will reach an agreement soon.

Glen Johnson is regarded as one of the most attack-minded full-backs in the Premier League, but Corchia’s tally of 16 chances created is only one less than the England international, while he also bests Sagna in this department.

Arsenal host Fulham next and in three of the last five meetings between the London clubs, Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker have been among the scorers.

This bodes well for a rare Sagna goal this time and he can be backed at 10/1 to score in the 90 minutes and 40/1 to break the deadlock.