Arsenal in three-way battle for Frankfurt midfielder Djibril Sow

Robin Bairner

• 5 Dec 2022 08:10 GMT
• 5 min read

Arsenal are one of three Premier League clubs taking a serious look at Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Djibril Sow with an eye to making a move for him during the January transfer window, Sport Bild reports.

The Gunners are known to want to strengthen their options in the centre of the field, and it appears that the Switzerland international midfielder is on their shortlist.

Mikel Arteta’s side, though, face competition from Newcastle and potentially Nottingham Forest for the 25-year-old, who is presently on international duty with Switzerland at the 2022 World Cup finals.

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Valued at €22 million by FootballTransfers, Sow was the subject of serious interest from Forest in the summer, with the promoted club seeing a €20m offer rejected.

Time is running out on his contract, though. Sow’s deal expires in 18 months, meaning that Frankfurt are likely to have their hand forced to sell either in January or the summer, else they could lose the player as a free agent.

MORE: Arsenal plan to sign Gabriel Jesus replacement in January

What Arsenal would get with Sow

Sow primarily plays as a central midfielder, with his style very much box-to-box.

Technically, he is a very sound attacking player, who rates well in terms of his passing, dribbling and ball retention, according to analysis from data analytics experts SciSports. One of the areas where his game is not so strong going forward is in the positions that he takes up.

His greatest strengths are defensive, though. If he does not have the instinct to get into good attacking positions, he is very intelligent in this regard defensively, suppressing opponents well in many situations.

SciSports believe that he would primarily be a squad rotation player at Arsenal, not having the capacity to knock international team-mate Granit Xhaka, for example, out of the starting XI. He would, however, provide useful competition in the Emirates Stadium side’s midfield, which is lacking in depth presently.