It is being widely reported that Arsenal are on the verge of finally signing a central defender and it has to be said, a very controversial signing at that.
Chelsea centre half David Luiz is expected to sign for Arsenal on Thursday, according to Sky Sports News.
The 32-year-old trained away from his Chelsea teammates on Wednesday after informing the club that he wants to move to North London and sign for Arsenal.
It has to be said this one is nothing short of being classed as a shocker, no one saw this one coming and it is not universally welcomed by Arsenal fans.
Anyone checking social media will have noticed that the vast majority of Arsenal fans are not overwhelmed by this development, in fact, they are downright unhappy.
Luiz is seen as being over the hill and not much of an upgrade on what is already available to manager Unai Emery and it is not out of the question that he could be named as the new Arsenal captain.
This transfer window has been a good one so far for Arsenal but for a lot of the fans it will be tainted by this signing.
From a personal standpoint, I see this as a bloody disastrous signing, I do not rate Luiz at all, he is a liability and not the sort of player that Arsenal should be signing.
that is good news.
What a ridiculous article…
Guess u didn’t watch the final in Baku then. Luis had both our strikers in his pockets. The search for why they had no significant short on target ends there. Look I got to problems with stop gaps solutions, Luis wouldn’t be here if Koscielny still is. We need experience and commanding presence at the back and that’s what Luiz brings. Not a fan of his antics but sure many top center halves got theirs ( Ramos). He wouldn’t be here for long and would need replacing as soon as the team is balanced.
Despite not being consistent, Mustafi and Sokratis have been working together in one season
A new CB will take time to adjust and he can’t be ordering his new teammates, so the new guy should offer other things apart from experience
That’s why I’d prefer a younger CB like Keane, Dunk, Tarkowski, Konate or Upamecano, because of their speed
Even at 32 he’s faster than all our defenders
Gotanidea
You said Mustafi and Socratic working together
What does that have to do with a defender like
Luiz who has been playing EPL for years..
And Mustafi and Socratis what are they working
Together on
Only working together in creating holes in our back line,that’s they are both specialized on. I am not really a D.Luiz fan but he’s needed now for short term services
God bless you my brother . mustafi is trash to me . David is a better defender any day
Good question mate
We need experience and leadership at the back and this will fill the gap he has pl knowledge and is not frightened to kick ass if it needs kicking our defence needs someone like him even if it is for a season or 2
Last season when it came to defensive statistics Luiz came at number 1,2,3 no lower in 37 appearances in a Chelsea team, people who criticise him either never watched him play or know know nothing, he will bring experience,few goals (headers,free kicks.. and will be hungry!
I watched the final, It was down to Sarri tactic and not Luiz performance on the fied. They played deep, overcrowded the penalty box, lured the wingbacks, and then hit us back on the counter. Essentially, they were aware of the quality of our strikers so they limit the space inside the penalty area.
@Sonix, thank you pal.
We needed urgent and quick replacement of Koscienly without enough money and time.
We should thank whoever thought of Luiz because he is a premier league proven player. In him, we have few goals from free kicks for certain.
That’s great when we at least want a trophy.
I agree with you, Arsenal can’t pick and choose unless they have money to spend and right now they are beggars and have no choice. I rated Luiz better than the Judas Konsienly? Arsenal fans can be a bit overzealous and bias when come to Spurs or Chelsea but football is all about winning l will hire Levi Spurs CEO if he’s the best candidate to do a good job at Arsenal gone are those days when loyalty is absolute rights
Not who I hoped for but good value, good experience, and window is not done yet either. Still an amazing window when Luiz and KT go through
Luiz’ falling out with Lampard is a blessing on disguise AdMar and I think you’re being a little unfair on him.
I seem to recall Luiz bossing our midfield/strikers in several games over the years and scoring a few against us too. I’m happy about this transfer because:
1) He has a skillset nobody else currently possesses in our squad. (Somebody on the previous thread, I think it was Pri, gave a good breakdown of this)
2) He can play different positions.
3) I’m a major fan, he’s ??lian and I love his fuzzy hair!!
**If we somehow managed to get Coutinho, I would expect a 3rd place finish and a couple of cup finals at the very least!!
Josh Kroenke was right to be excited.
**blessing in disguise not ‘on’… Silly autocorrect?
Hey AdMar can we have an EDIT button please??
???????
Welbeck, I respect you’re a fan of Luiz but I recall he was destroyed by Son (the son of spuds).
Agree with point 1 & 2 though, he’s got long range passing ability and was great when utilized as a DM by Jose.
Is there any defending player who has never been ‘destroyed’ (dribbled) in the past ?
VVD is probably the best defender around, yet, he’s dribbled and will still be dribbled.
David Luiz is better than any defender we currently have in our squad now.
That’s not my point mate, I mean it’s typical D.Luiz, he always charges at opponents and gives space for the opposition attackers to exploit. Very similar to Sokratis.
In addition, he is prone to errors and makes unnecessary fouls (remember when he avoided Kane’s long shoot or when he got a red card after tackling Kolasinac?).
On the positive side, he is a strong tackler and has good body balance, long range passing, and powerful freekick.
With Xhaka in front of him, he will be exposed and a nightmare situation for Leno. He was good at CFC because of Kante. Here we have Xhaka, a watch tower erected around the half line! Hopefully Pepe/Callebos/Iwobi or his replacement can keep the opposing forwards busy defending, but on a counter we are finished with Xhaka / Kolas /AMN / Mustafi or Luiz / Socrates /Kolas. We release our 33 year old for approx 3.5M and sign their 32 year old for 8M, ridiculous business.Last time we signed agent Chek for 10M. CFC have the art of squeezing money from us for their discards.
I agree… Luiz wnt help us, he is…. unstable (nice way to say the truth)… better then Kos thou
Luiz had an outstanding season last year, so why not this year?
We have to sign a center half otherwise our season will be business as usual.
He’ll be more important from the likes of Upamecano and Rugani with his overall vast experience and in particular EPL experience.
From bad to worse in central defence. well at least he can head the ball. Speed? Not a bit! Not a fan.
Luiz is better than all the CBs we have at Arsenal right now.Rob Holding only holds the advantage of a young prospect else Luiz is miles ahead of Chambers,Sokratis & Mustafi.
Luiz and Sokratis, masters of the dark arts, much needed steel in defence, both willing to take one for the team, professional wrestling duo, the little and large of comical defending (if you think his signing is a joke), no easy pushovers.
We need players who will fight back against the thuggish teams who try to kick us off the park.
Exactly my thought pal, the back four of Kolasinac-Luiz-Sokratis-Mustafi (as RB) = 3 thugs and 1 beggar
Two words bargain bin!we are Arsenal for Christ sake why are we rummaging through the bargain bin for over the hill has been?
Luiz is an upgrade to what we have already, we really need is experience.
The manager and the directors at Arsenal are crazier than I thought. But I guess Emery want to play safe again by working with one of his ex players
The last time we got an old CB from Chelsea, Gallas, it didn’t end well. I highly doubt Luiz’s motivation because he seems to want to make Arsenal as his retirement house, but I hope he can prove himself
The problem is most Chelsea fans are happy with Luiz’s departure, if you read their comments on social media and their forums. I can only wish that his arrival would mean Mustafi’s departure, because Mustafi’s playing time would be limited
Luis is ok in the absence of anything better,there’s a saying which goes thus”if the desired is not available then the available must be desired.”till the next market,keep the faith.
? Lawrence, good attitude.
i like the signing simply because he has the premier league experience which is massive. He is a champion. At first when i heard of him as a signing i was sad, but usually when players ditch teams for their rival they usually come good since they have a point to prove. And ofcourse it gives me pride that all our signings this summer all shunned our rivals for us despite we not offering champions league football except tierny. Form they say is temperal but class is permanent. We are indeed the true pride of london. Our players usually ditch us for our rivals because of financial reasons and not footballing reasons. I wont be surprise if luiz takes a pay cut. Martinelli ditched man u for us, saliba and cebalos ditch spuds for us, pepe ditch liverpool for us and now luiz is fighting chelsea for us…am over the moon. What a window.
Luis, obviously doesn’t like the idea of working under Lampard, so he will want to impress at any new club.
One thing I do know is that most of you who are always quick to criticize every single move by the club would do far worse if you were given the responsibility of making those decisions.
Shocking transfer if this goes through makes no sense if they wanted someone short term may as well gone for Cahill on a free before he joined palace. Luiz is not gona improve our defence will still defend like the key stone cops plus galas situation comes to mind will all go pear shaped very quickly!!
People need to remember why Gallas was upset when playing at Arsenal; he wasn’t impressed with the lack of effort and commitment by some of his fellow players.
It’s a new season. Give the bloke the benefit of the doubt to say the least. At 32, he will be a stop gap until we get our defense sorted out , progressively. Every player have their shortcomings, Luiz is no different. I’m sure he’ll do good, especially when we play Chelsea. He will have a point to prove too.
Welcome aboard Luiz, if you’re signing for us… cheers!
Let us continue to be faithful believing the new team knows what they are doing, anyhow, he is better than Koscielny in my opinion and for all I care, it will give us time to genuinely find a long term quality replacement. I genuinely thought Ruganni was coming. LET IT BE.
Ruganni might appear smack on dateline… you’ll never know … another surprise perhaps?
Let us continue to be faithful believing the new team knows what they are doing, anyhow, he is better than Koscielny in my opinion and for all I care, it will give us time to genuinely find a long term quality replacement. I genuinely thought Ruganni was coming. LET IT BE.
the team is very ok. We just need to avoid injuries. Also i hope emery dosnt play xhaka as a defensive midfieder. His lack of mobility will kill us and freqently expose our over30 year old centre back pairing of luiz and sokratis. Toreira will do a perfect job. But my mind is telling me that emery’s midfield three will be xhaka ceballos and ozil with xhaka as the DM. Xhaka is strong but his lack of pace and his mistakes are usually very costly. Well maybe when they give him the arm band he would improve.
Xhaka can’t improve. He’s the finished article. What you see is what you get. A slow, average midfielder who passes the ball sideways and gets caught on the ball at the worst possible times. Not good enough…….
Believe me the restructuring of our club leadership is yielding results already.we are on our way to recover our past lost glory,you can see that now we are approaching transfers with serious intent. Who thought that arsenal will ever fork out 72m pounds on a single player? This is revolutionary. The Luiz signing is a great one for short term if we can not get our long term target. Did I hear someone comparing David Luiz to Mustafi? U must be crazy
I would say it is a practical move by UE, Luiz will be a stop gap CB for about 2 years (probably) which will allocate sufficient period for our young CBs (Mavro & Saliba) to step up their game.
I dont rate Chambers & Holdings as young anymore, they have to prove their worth this season. Nacho and Mustafi (hopefully) will be gone next season which leaves Sokratis & Luiz to guide and instill a winning mentality to our young defends.
If this deal pulls through, then I think this pairings would be tested by UE for the first few games while waiting for a fully fit squad (like its possible tho).
Kola-Sokratis-Luiz-Chambers-AMN
Nacho-Luiz-Chambers-AMN
Without looking too much on the downside, Arsenal will be better with Luiz rather than not.
He is a dead ball specialist, vocal leader and proven winner.
I AGREE WITH YOU IN TOTALITY. This wouldn’t have been thought of if the other old man had not gone to Monaco. Saliba will be here next season and Mavro, Holding and co. must have gained experience. Just a stop gap.
Luiz at 32 years is over the hill but still more reliable than Mustafi. I will take the transfer,nonetheless, because it’s better than nothing. What am really worried about is the RB position! I mean, AMN again? I wanted Bellerin out even before he got injured so no improvement on that area. Finally, if Xhaka stays his blunders will still be here to cost us games no matter how well we play.
I was hoping for Sidibe, too late tho Everton already get him on loan. Fingers cross AMN will prove us wrong then.
QD, did you really expect all the shortcomings of the Arsenal squad could be addressed in one transfer window? At least a start has been made and the transfer window has not yet closed.
Okay, fair enough Ozziegunner, we can’t fix all our problems in one transfer window. However, I had hoped to see a lot more improvements especially in our problematic defence. Am really worried about an incompetent AMN playing as our RB for the 2nd season in a row.
That’s 3 transfer windows to fix the shortcomings if your talking about the new regime .
No more old excuses blaming wenger now ,let’s see what Emery is made of .
Suddenly Rugani looks like a world beater in my eyes. David Luiz to arsenal? Hell no!!!!
Agreed. Send an unhappy player back to Chelsea………. Luiz being unhappy at Chelski will help us more than if he turns up for us……..
I don’t think that is good business. Any player from rival clubs comes with some hidden mission, except Welbeck and Campbell. Arsenal has suffered a lot because of some players transferred from rival clubs.
Don’t like Luiz as a player or personality … That said it makes sense as a signing as he’s better than mustafi … Though like him prone to stupid errors … and adds presence and height and is cheap see it as a holding option til Saliba arrives he is also a decent long range passer of ball which makes xhaka even more redundant … Bellerin sokratis Luiz tierney isn’t a world class defense but better than last season … Bellerin holding Saliba tierney could become one
Upamecano would make me excited. Luiz makes me cringe. Sell Iwobi, take the money and spend it on Upamecano. Iwobi can be replaced in an instant with either Willock, Maitland-Niles, Nketiah, Reiss Nelson or has he already been replaced with Pepe and Ceballos. What we seriously need is a big, strong, fast, young, commanding Central Defender, Upamecano ticks every box. Even if we pay £60M that’s only £6M a year for the next 10 years. A bargain….. £6M only buys you a broken down Koscielny…..
Excite me Josh Kroenke……..fix our defence once and for all……..
Please can you tell me how many teams in the premier league have a world class defense or are you saying because Manchester United bought wan bissaka for 50million and maguire for 80million,does that mean they now have a world class defense?
Arsenal currently have the crapiest defence out of the top 8. Wan Bissaka and maguire will definitely improve utd’s defence.
its weird and amazing that the author and fans have commented without having watch luiz play last season….
he was outstanding..ability to take freekicks and has the height
signing of Luiz adds experience and allow Holding and Mvpranos to develop
Luiz has long pass ability, he can play defensive midfield, he can play free kick as you said, he is also a leader.
What are people on about. Luiz is a no brainer.
1.the fact he weakens our direct rival.
2. He is better equipped, experience than ever cb we have.
3.he can play anywhere across the backline.
4.i think Emery wants to play withbavk 3 Luiz, sokratis and holding, and who if not his formal player he knows about.
5.luiz is a dead ball specialist.
6.he is a well rounded defender, very dogged, no nonsense, let me see those boggy teams that used to bully our cb(Watford), a cb of sokratis and Luiz I am certain if it is fight we are winning on that front.
I could go on and on but it makes sense as I see it as a short time fix rather than signing an unprovrn kid(upamecano) for such a ridiculous amount.
Optimistic about the new season.coyg
? Lucia, well reasoned, but probably wasted on many. Let’s face it there is not much Luis hasn’t won in the EPL and Europe.
Lucia – totally agree 🙂
Well said Lucia..Luis is a temporary fix not permanent
Of course I wanted Upamecano but it’s not happening though.
I’ve always been a big fan of Luiz, and at £8 million it’s a no brainier. He’s better than both Sokratis and Mustafi so can replace either ( or both!). He’s also far better than Xhaka and could replace him in midfield next to Torriera if required. I embrace this signing with open arms and hope it happens. #GiveLuizachance.
David Luiz both has his strength and Weakness..
He is fast, a good tackler and very comfortable on the ball…
Sometimes he might dwell too much on the ball instead of releasing it to the next midfielder to do the rest
He loves playing long ball which makes us loose possession easily….
he is also rash and commits needless fowls and bookings….
IN conclusion, i believe He is more better than Sokratis
How I wish Mustafi can sort his occasional lack of concentration, positioning awareness and indecisiveness……
Mustafi can still change and improve, because he knows everyone has given up on him…
So it’s likely Tierney and Luiz incoming today and Iwobi outgoing, possibly along with Elneny. #happy.
Iwobi is going nowhere cos UE likes him..so don’t think too much about it
I would have liked to have seen Rugani here,Luiz well, lots of experience of the prem quite quick,My worry is that he likes to bomb forward and would leave our fragile defence exposed,can be a bit of a headless chicken.
? I too believe Daniele Rugani would thrive at Arsenal.
Does 40 mill for Iwobi = Zaha bid!! Gona be a interesting last day of transfer window even if we sign Luiz we might still add 1 more cb poss Ruggani on loan would be good buisness!!
Losing Kos; Luis is ideal replacemt: Epl experience,agressive, leader better in the air, bring danger on set piece.
It wont solve as we needed someone as Koulibaly to add to Kos or Luis.
Everton just snatched great RB sidibe who we needed bad and prefered Arsenal.
Everton is way stronger than last year beating us then.
Liverpool, Man City, Spurs for Epl champion race.
Man U, Chelsea will fight 4th place.
Everton, Wolves for 6th Europa league.
Arsenal will finish between 6 and 9th spot. We have no defense and it takes one to have a football game.
Koulibaly, sidibe, tierny and dombele were players we needeed to lock defense issue; fight for title would have been realistic then.
Leno
Sidibe- Koulibaly-Luis -Tierney
Dombele – Willock-Torreira
Ceballos or Ozil
Auba – Laca
Very difficult to score for any team as to stop us from doing so; with Ozil in form, back to his assist master, he will feed our two strickers who simply must be played together. Auba showed he can go wide but a golden boot; top stricker!
Unfortunatly, we spent money on Pepe to attack more instead of investing on a top CB koulibaly is & so needed to defense first.
Kroenke got us good, made a payement plan for pepe got you all hype to buy ticket. Watch how this shaddy move backclashes.
???? you are so negative, I think Claude of AFTV has a twin.
You damn right ALEE he is Claude’s twin
Hmmm, 9th? Ok. I will remind you in may
Wow you sure are negative, there is no way we don’t finish top 6. Luiz is a stop gap to Saliba who I think will be our main cb with holding next season.
Wow why not just admit Arsenal will be relegated? Some people are hard to be pleased. This is the best window over a decade for Arsenal and we need more than a window to solve all our problems.
@Mogunna, watch out for a great season to be presented by
Aubameyang
Zaha? Lacazette Pepe
Guendouzi Ceballos Torreira
Tierney Sokratis Luiz
Leno
Subs: Martinez, Martinelli, Willock, Holding, Bellerin, Nelson…..
He may not be the absolute key CB, we really need. But he is for sure a lot better than Chambers and Mustafi and also a bit better than Socratis and Holding.
At least it is an improvement.
For the reported £8mil this is a fantastic bit of business in my opinion.
Now let’s sell iwobi and mustafi and go all in on Zaha and call Barca to get Coutinho in on loan ? ? ? ??
Mogunna, how about a touch of reality about what was achievable in one transfer window and give some credit.
Season ticket holders had to renew their tickets well before any transfer Des were finalized.
Wow you sure are negative, there is no way we don’t finish top 6. Luiz is a stop gap to Saliba who I think will be our main cb with holding next season.
Luiz has been a Chelsea player for 6 years but they still demanded £8M for a 32 year old defender. I haven’t seen their fans bashing the Chelsea board for asking too much for their “loyal servant”.
Kos out, Luiz in. That’s an improvement for me for this season while Holding and Marvo gets better. Next season we have Saliba in. COYG!
Maybe because he has 2years left on his contract and he’s not always injured like koscieny and maybe because he’s won trophies that koscieny did not win. Am sure you did not think about all that.
?
With Luiz and Tierney that’s top 3 secured for SURE!!!
I’ve forever been putting Luiz in my fantasy arsenal team.
He’s comfortable on the ball, good at man-marking, good at heading balls away and deadball specialist… What more would you want from a defender, arsenal fans????
Strongest lineup for the season:
Leno
Mustafi(RB)..Sokratis..Luiz.. Tierney
Mkitaryan…Torreira…Ceballos
Pepe…Aubameyang…Iwobi
Mustafi at RB because he’s a better defender and tackler than lousy Bellerin and AMN and most importantly is good header of the ball.
Mkitaryan: is best no.8 at the club and can defend.
Iwobi: best left winger at the club, SIMPLE.
“Strongest line up “
Iwobi ?
Thought it was April the 1st for a minute there .
Cheers for the laugh though ?
Still using Mustafi and no place for Lacazette…. thank gosh you’re not the Boss.
He certainly has an error in him but most of our back line players do!
What I do like is hes vocal a leader an organiser and is good in the air and not afraid to put his body on the line! More than I can say for Kos on all points I just mentioned.
I quite like the idea of him and sokratis pairing up and either of them with holding looks nice.
8m no brainer also he can take free kicks has a mean shot, bring the ball out well and has good long distribution game, (who needs a mf when you can go long to pepe laca and auba?) #luiz quarterback
Luiz & Sokratis – tag team ?
I must admit I was absolutely horrified yesterday when this news broke, I’m not exactly pumped now, but I’m coming round to the idea…
He wasn’t the CB I thought we’d end up with though!
The Hardy Boyz ?
@Declan.
Good point I forgot how versatile Luiz is in that he can play in mf instead of torreira as our dm player.
I love what hell bring mainly his leadership vocality but also his long incisional passes he can pull off bypassing the mf into our front 3.
I bet he will get many assists if he comes and a fair few goals.
His character can only positively influence our team
For those who wanted Iwobi to be sold you can make it possible by doing the following:
Go to Everton and contribute towards the £100m that Iwobi is worth.
Concerning Zaha hype: Players always tend to perform better at smaller clubs (go ask Lukaku) and this Zaha guy hasn’t even performed at Crystal Palace except for the dribbling.
All of a sudden he’s worth £80m. WE WON’T BUY HIM, HE’S WORTH £40M WE EARLIER SUBMITTED.
Iwobi is what 100m oh my God then we can say we stole pepe at 72m if iwobi is 100m then hazard is worth 500m
8 million, not 80 million, and arguably better at 32 than anything we already had. Really looking forward to Saliba and hoping Rob Holding cracks on this season. We can’t address everything in one transfer window but, unlike previous transfer windows, we can address key areas (wide attacking midfielder and box to box required) without leaving huge holes (and believe me a potential partnership of Mustafi and Chambers is one big black hole)
You guyz that want to pay 80m for zaha but sell iwobi for 20m need to stop undervalueing our players. How are we going to get anywere selling players for 20m. Thats The main problem at arsenal we sold ospina schez gnabry The jeff and alot of more players for pocket change.
I have a feeling that D.Luiz would be utilized more at a DM role if reports of Arsenal chiefs flying to Milan for Rugani is true. Let’s wait and see what happens.
Nobody expected Arsenal to make as much as 5 signings so let’s all stay positive. The major issue is the ability of the coach to take us further up.
He is hard working defender.., he never show laziness in the field.., he can give other players courage and hope in the match.., I like him and prefer him more then other chelsea defenders
And as stated by Pablo, Luis is versatile, can play across a back four and as a DM. He may also be a strong combative figure in the dressing room as well as on the field
A very good acquisition at £8 million and a 2 year contract.
No news on another bid from Everton ?
Where will Zaha end up??
There is a prediction that Arsenal will loose the first 3 games and also miss out on top 4 with Manure. Just waiting to see about the first 3 games before I start believing season
9 points from first 3 games?
COYG
whats our net spending this window? martineli in full(6) pepe and saliba in installments tierney (?) and Luiz (8) … sold various bit players for around 20m … looks like the 40m figure is pretty close
Did some back of an envelope sums….
Martinelli 6m
Saliba 5m ( deposit)
Pepe 20m (approx plus plus plus )
Tierney 20m ( plus add ons)
Carabello’s 4m
Ruiz 8m
Total 63m
Budget 45 m
Kos 4.5m
Jerks 2m
Beilik 8m
Ospina and youngster (sorry forgot) 4m (?)
Total 63.5m
We made a profit, ?
Anything better than mustafi is okay with me and I consider Luiz being a better player + weakening a team that won’t sign a replacement ?? and strengthen our cb is a WOW
That’s Arsenal for you, they will never change. Remember Gallas, Silvestre frm MU, etc but at least Luiz is Brazilian lol, he’s passionate and has a good football mentality better than the Instagram/clowns in Arsenal at the moment. Plzzz just don’t make him captain