Top News

Sandro Tonali was reportedly offered to Arsenal by the midfielder's agent ahead of Monday's transfer deadline. The Italian emerged as a surprise transfer target for the Gunners earlier on Monday, with Arsenal said to be on the lookout for midfield reinforcements following Mikel Merino's injury.

The Athletic have reported that Tonali's camp reached out to Arsenal's sporting director, Andrea Berta, who is believed to have been a long-term admirer of the Newcastle ace. However, hopes of striking a deal for Tonali were said to have fallen at the first hurdle, given Newcastle weren't willing to entertain any business at this late stage of the window.

As such, discussions surrounding a move for Tonali didn't extend to club-to-club talks between Arsenal and Newcastle, with Tonali said to stay at St. James' Park beyond the deadline. However, Tonali's agent, Giuseppe Riso, denies the claim. He told Sky Italia: "We never had any conversation with Arsenal. Newcastle were never gonna let Tonali leave in January. There's absolutely nothing into it. We didn't even talk about it."

Mikel Arteta was quizzed on the possibility of adding reinforcements to his ranks ahead of the transfer deadline, with the Spanish coach responding: "We need to do everything that we possibly can to see if we have a player that is available. If we don't, OK, we keep what we have. At this level, especially for four months, you have to bring a player who has the capacity to adapt immediately and impact the team. That's not easy but if it was easy we wouldn't be here. We need to find solutions and try."

He continued: "We have more depth now but for seven months we haven't had the depth because we had players out, like a lot of teams. We know the demands and the standards that we need. We need players because we play every two, three days.

EXPRESS SPORT ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page

"We are always active in every window that we have just in case something happens. We had the departure of Ethan as well to Marseille for the right reasons I believe for the club, player and team. The news of Mikel was very unexpected, especially for such a long time. So we are actively looking at options, we will continue to do that."

Arsenal still remain in all four competitions and will play out the second leg of their League Cup quarter-final with Chelsea on Tuesday. The capital club also have a healthy six-point lead at the top of the Premier League table, and are already through to the last-16 of the Champions League.