Edu wins Arsenal’s £ 38million transfer battle, leaving Premier League rivals in financial disaster – Tom Canton

Arsenal have been linked with a host of creative midfielders this summer. The club finally signed Martin Odegaard from Real Madrid after the Norwegian enjoyed a successful six-month loan with the team.

However, Arsenal appeared to have been tough at first for Norwich City midfielder Emi Buendia. The Gunners lost the Argentine with Aston Villa providing his services. The 24-year-old aimed to help Jack Grealish’s inevitable departure.

Many Gunners fans had decided Buendia would become Arsenal’s new creative force, but others highlighted his only uninteresting season in the England top flight with the Canaries in the 2019/20 campaign. So far, these seem to be the individuals who have been right.

Buendia has registered only one goal and one assist so far. The little player prepared Ollie Watkins in Sunday night’s loss to West Ham. Villa was well beaten, losing 4-1 at home to the impressive Hammers team of David Moyes.

Meanwhile, Arsenal saw quite a lineup change with a variation of a 4-4-2 taking shape with Alexandre Lacazette falling into an unorthodox No. 10 role but supporting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the attack.

Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka were masterful in large areas with no clear point for Buendia.

So much so that Odegaard has struggled to regain his place in the squad since losing it, ironically, to Aston Villa just two league games ago.

In the 3-1 home win over Villa, Buendia had no influence on the game. Arsenal’s improved defense kept the Argentine very calm and gave Arteta something to be happy about.

Arteta was asked about the club’s pursuit of Buendia ahead of the game with the Birmingham-based club, but did not disclose any information on summer plans.

“I never divulge the players we were interested in, and I’m not going to do that now”, said Arteta.

Not exactly a denial but very typical on the part of the Secret Coach. Perfectly following in the footsteps of his former manager Arsène Wenger.

Buendia could continue to have a great rest of the season, however, right now Arteta has no reason to think about the missed opportunity with the pursuit of a European place and Villa just 3 points above gout.

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