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Arsenal join race to sign the "best defender in the world" after in-person checks

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Published Sep 7, 2026, 6:16 PM GMT+1

Tom is a football journalist with over five years of experience, specialising in Premier League reporting, feature writing and transfer analysis, with particular expertise covering Liverpool and Everton.

His work has been featured in The Non-League Paper, Crawley Observer, Sussex Express and The Redmen TV, where he produced features, news and exclusive interviews across all levels of the game.

For Football FanCast, Tom has interviewed a number of respected figures from across football, including Ally McCoist, Philippe Senderos and Chris Waddle. Elsewhere, he has covered the National League South play-off final, Formula E's London E-Prix, Crawley Town and Brighton & Hove Albion's Under-21s.

Tom's expertise lies in analysing transfer developments, explaining what they mean for clubs and supporters, and producing in-depth features on the biggest stories in football. Through years of covering Liverpool and Everton, he has developed an extensive understanding of Merseyside football, both clubs' recruitment strategies and the issues that matter most to their supporters. He has also built strong relationships across the football industry that add valuable context to his reporting and analysis.

Tom also enjoys writing features on the broader challenges facing football, its clubs, players, governing bodies and, most importantly, supporters.

It feels absurd to suggest that they still need reinforcements after taking nine points from a possible nine at the start of their Premier League title defence, but the reality is that Arsenal could still improve.

They missed out on several attacking targets in the summer and despite signing Bruno Guimaraes, Christos Tzolis and Ezri Konsa, some considered their transfer window a failure.

Arsenal's summer signings 26/27

Nationality

Previous Club

Fee

Bruno Guimaraes	Brazil	Newcastle	£75m
Ezri Konsa	England	Aston Villa	£55m
Christos Tzolis	Greece	Club Brugge	£35m
Piero Hincapie	Ecuador	Bayer Leverkusen	£34.5m
Andria Bartishvili	Georgia	Kolkheti 1913	£3.9m
Illan Meslier	France	Leeds United	Free

The January transfer window, therefore, offers a chance at redemption for Andrea Bertra. It's then that the likes of Julian Alvarez could be explored again.

It's also about weakening rival clubs in both the Premier League and Champions League. Mikel Arteta is so often relentless and he needs Arsenal's transfer strategy to reflect that.

By winning the race to sign Alvarez, the Premier League champions would welcome the world-class forward that they've been seeking for some time now, and also deal Barcelona an almighty blow.

The Spanish giants were leading the race all summer, only for Atletico Madrid to publicly reject their advances and keep a frustrated Alvarez.

The South American isn't the only target from a European giant, though. Alongside Alvarez, Arsenal also have Willian Pacho in their sights. And if they want to weaken any European rival, then the side aiming for a third-consecutive Champions League victory would be a good place to start.

Arsenal join race to sign Willian Pacho

As reported by Caught Offside, Arsenal have surged into the race to sign Willian Pacho from Paris Saint-Germain in January.

The Gunners have already completed in-person checks after dispatching officials to watch the defender in PSG's 2-2 draw with LOSC Lille at the end of last month. Alas, they weren't alone. Alongside those in north London, Manchester City's officials were also in attendance - sparking rumours of a huge race between Premier League rivals.

Willian Pacho vs Lille

Minutes	90
Tackles
Duel success	50%
Passes into final third	6
Recoveries	8

Whilst Pacho would be the first to admit that it wasn't his finest game against Lille earlier this season, his potential was still on show in front of some important spectators.

What stood out most was his ability in possession. The 24-year-old completed six passes into the final third - five more than Konsa and one less than Gabriel managed against Chelsea.

There were still some defensive highlights too. Eight recoveries and a duel success of 50% suggests that Pacho is certainly aggressive enough for the Premier League.

PSG teammate Marquinhos went as far as calling Pacho the 'best defender in the world' when PSG defeated Bayern Munich in the Champions League last season. That's how highly he's rated in Paris and if Arsenal want to steal in, then it is unlikely to come cheap or easy.

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