Arteta demands Nico Williams in JANUARY to rescue Arsenal title challenge

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 10 Dec 2024 07:27 GMT
• 3 min read

Mikel Arteta has demanded the signing of Nico Williams in January in an attempt to rescue Arsenal's faltering title challenge.

That is according to Arsenal journalist Charles Watts, who says that Arteta wants to sign an attacker during the January transfer window as he feels the Gunners are lightgweight in this area.

Williams has a reported transfer release clause of €58 million, which is not unreachable for Arsenal.

READ MORE: Champions League top scorers 2024/25

Arteta feels that the signing of Williams can kickstart Arsenal's title hopes.

The Gunners find themselves in third place in the Premier League, six points behind leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand.

Arsenal were interested in signing Williams this past summer, with the winger one of the most wanted men on the transfer market.

READ MORE: Premier League top scorers 2024/25

Barcelona and Chelsea also fought for the player's signature but he ended up staying at Athletic Bilbao.

“My heart is Bilbao, but nobody knows what will happen in the future,” Williams said in September of his reasons for staying at Athletic.

“It's always good when big teams want you. But I always said that I wanted to be here.

“If there was anything, it was from my agent. But I wanted to play in Europe with Bilbao.”

It is widely understood that Williams was only really tempted by a move to Barcelona.

Indeed, Barcelona came close to landing him. But the Camp Nou side’s poor finances blocked a deal.

But a new move from Arsenal in January may tempt Williams.

Williams at Euro 2024

Williams was one of the stars of Euro 2024 with electric performances as Spain won the trophy.

He scored in the 2-1 final win over England and was one of the players of the tournament.

His best performance was arguably against Italy where he tore apart the right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo and set up the winner - an own goal by Riccardo Calafiori.

He also scored a fantastic goal in the win over Georgia in the last-16.

The 22-year-old Williams is considered one of the most exciting young wingers in all of Europe.

Blessed with lightning pace and dribbling skills, he has a promising future in the game.

After making his debut for Athletic in 2021, Williams has scored 22 goals in 141 games.

He has also scored four goals in 24 games for Spain, and travelled to the 2022 World Cup.

This season he has been a little less productive, with two goals in 19 games.