The Chris Wheatley Show is a brand new weekly series talking all things Arsenal and the Premier League. This week, Chris Wheatley and host Jason Jones discuss the January transfer window, Gabriel Jesus, Chido Obi-Martin and more.
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00:00 Hello, welcome to another episode of the Chris Wheatley Show, ShotsTV's one-stop shop to
00:07 keep you in the know on all things Arsenal. I'm your host, Jason Jones, and I'm joined
00:11 as always by the man himself, Chris Wheatley. This week we're going to be discussing Arsenal's
00:16 interest in a couple of Aston Villa midfielders, we're going to be talking about Gabriel Jesus
00:20 and the latest injury update on the Brazilian striker. We're also going to be discussing
00:24 Chido Obi Martin, the Arsenal youngster who scored 10 goals against Liverpool this week.
00:29 We should have time for some listening questions as well. So without further ado, Chris, plenty
00:33 to get through as always, mate. We'll start with a bit of transfer news, transfer gossip
00:38 I guess you could call it, and Arsenal's interest in a couple of Aston Villa players. Now, one
00:45 we've already discussed on the pod, one we haven't. We'll start with the one we have,
00:49 and that is Douglas Luiz, obviously Brazilian holder, midfielder. We know it's a position
00:53 that Arsenal are potentially looking to strengthen, income and transfer windows. Have you got
00:57 any sort of update on where their pursuit of Luiz lies at the moment?
01:02 Yeah, so it's our weekly Douglas Luiz update, and he's obviously a player that Arsenal like.
01:08 We've spoken about him quite a lot in the past few weeks. Arsenal do like the player.
01:13 Of course, he's a Brazil midfielder. Edu, Arsenal's sporting director, is a Brazilian.
01:20 Big admirer of the player. Mikel Arteta as well. And he's kind of seen as an ideal replacement
01:25 for Thomas Partey, who's had a series of injury problems over the past couple of years. This
01:30 season in particular, he's had quite a few injury problems too. So Luiz is seen as that
01:35 kind of Partey replacement. At the moment, no real update on terms of the deal itself,
01:41 but we do know that Arsenal also like Aston Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey. Now, he is
01:47 a player that Mikel Arteta has kept his eye on for quite a while now. A really talented
01:53 young player, a bit more of an attacking midfielder than Luiz. But interestingly, there is interest
02:00 from the Gunners.
02:03 So obviously you're saying that Ramsey is a slightly more attacking player. Where does
02:07 that lie? Where does that leave Arsenal rather in terms of what they are looking for going
02:12 forward? Because it would appear that they will require a replacement for Partey at some
02:17 point. Would Ramsey be another player on top of that? Or would he be an alternative route
02:23 of replacing the guy?
02:27 Quite potentially it could be both. But of course, Arsenal will have to be careful with
02:31 the purse strings in January and in the summer as well. They already spent £200 million
02:36 on three new players last summer. So yeah, I think it's a deal that's being looked at.
02:42 I don't think anything is advanced or particularly concrete right now. But he is a player that
02:47 they kept their eye on for a while. Don't forget that Aston Villa were interested in
02:51 Emil Smith-Rowe last summer, looking at a potential deal for him, managed by Unai Emery
02:57 in the past as well. So there could potentially be a deal there that could be struck. But
03:02 at the moment, as I said, nothing particularly concrete. It is interesting though that Arsenal
03:07 admire Ramsey because he is that kind of Michel Arteta player in the way that he's very good
03:14 at adhering to those tactical instructions. Also, don't forget, he's an England starlet
03:20 as well. I think that also helps in terms of betting into the team because of course,
03:25 Arsenal have almost like an English core right now with Bakayo Saka being the main man, Declan
03:30 Rice in midfield. So yeah, it's an interesting one. But at the moment, Arsenal certainly
03:36 looking to do business in the upcoming transfer window.
03:41 You sort of touched on it there. I mean, Ramsey's still only 22. I think it's probably fair
03:45 to say that he still has levels left to reach in his game. But again, the sort of signing
03:51 that we have seen Arsenal make in recent seasons where they bring these players in, they allow
03:55 them to grow and develop under Michel Arteta's guidance and then sort of, you know, burgeon
04:00 and become a better player all round because of that. And is it a real sort of focus for
04:06 Arsenal to be bringing in those sort of players, the players who perhaps do have youth on their
04:10 side?
04:11 Yeah, I think it's a mixture really. I think they want to bring in those young, talented
04:16 players who can also increase in market value over the coming years and seasons. But I think
04:23 as well as that, they want to buy those experienced players, those players who have played in
04:28 the Champions League, for example, who have played in the Premier League at the top of
04:32 their game. I think Declan Rice is the prime example of a player that Michel Arteta really,
04:38 you know, would like to attract. You know, he's not particularly old, but at the same
04:42 time he's been around for quite a while now in the Premier League. He's got that experience
04:46 under his belt. And I think that's what Michel Arteta is looking to kind of bring in over
04:52 the next few transfer windows. But I don't think Arsenal are particularly short in many
04:57 positions. We've spoken about it before. That striker position is somewhere they really
05:01 do need to strengthen and in midfield as well, especially if they lose party in the coming
05:06 windows. But other than that, I think they're looking fairly strong across the pitch. They've
05:10 got a lot of options. They've got a lot of depth. And yeah, I think at the moment, Michel
05:15 Arteta is just looking at what he can do in January. Of course, it's approaching fairly
05:19 soon that we will be singing our Christmas songs, Jase, in the next few weeks, of course.
05:25 And just coming back round to Luis as well, obviously, wonderfully talented player. What
05:30 do you think he would bring to the Gunners were he to come in in the relatively near
05:33 future?
05:34 Well, I think we've seen this season he's got that goal scoring kind of aspect to his
05:41 game. He's a player who really does like to get forward. He's, I think, really mobile
05:49 as well and could potentially say more mobile than party because party has really kind of
05:53 struggled to move in the way that he moved at Atletico Madrid. And I think Douglas Luiz
05:59 is clearly that player who would add an extra level to the Arsenal midfield. And of course,
06:06 it's not guaranteed that he'd be a regular starter either with the amount of options
06:11 that Arsenal have there. But I think you can imagine him alongside Declan Rice. It would
06:15 be a pretty exciting midfield to look at. But yeah, at the moment, of course, party's
06:20 future still not clarified. It's still a bit uncertain. But I think Douglas Luiz would
06:26 add quite a lot to Arsenal's game, especially in that attack in third.
06:30 Yeah, I have to say I wrote a piece on him towards the end of last week because Arsenal
06:37 have sort of tentatively been linked with Ruben Neves as well. There's been some speculation
06:41 there. And I sort of wrote a piece comparing the two and I was quite surprised actually
06:46 to see just how many aspects of his game that he soundly outstripped Ruben Neves in. We
06:51 know Ruben Neves is a fantastic player in that last season he had at Wolves in particular.
06:55 I think he was for many people that player of the season. And yet Luiz, especially on
07:00 the front foot, if you look at his goal scoring contributions, but his progressive passes,
07:04 the way that he carries the ball and so many aspects of his game, he does feel as if he
07:09 would be, like you say, a more sort of dynamic, mobile sort of acquisition to bring into that
07:16 midfield alongside Declan Rice, who we know can hold so astutely, but who is also capable
07:22 of stepping on the front foot as well. I think the two of them in tandem, were it to come
07:25 off Arsenal, would be really, really, like you said, quite exciting.
07:29 (upbeat music)