Caicedo to Arsenal bad news for FIVE players

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 28 Jan 2023 15:54 GMT
• 3 min read

Moises Caicedo is poised to join Arsenal in a transfer that could climb to £75 million. Not everyone will be celebrating the Ecuadorean's arrival from Brighton…

Caicedo to Arsenal is a huge boon for Gunners fans, especially with Chelsea having also been in the race for his signature after the Blues pipped them to Mykhailo Mudryk earlier in the January transfer window.

The Ecuador international has emerged as one of the best players in his position since arriving in the Premier League from Independiente del Valle in February 2021, averaging three tackles but two shot-creating actions per 90 minutes over the last year.

READ: Moises Caicedo goes AWOL as Arsenal ready new transfer bid - Fabrizio Romano

Caicedo will bolster the Gunners midfield, and increase their chances of securing a first Premier League title since the Invincibles season in 2004, but there will be losers as well as winners from his move.

Granit Xhaka might be the most concerned. The one-time captain has had an up and down relationship with the support since arriving from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2016, but has been playing his best football in a long time this season, contributing three goals and five assists to Arsenal's title tilt.

Midfield minefield

Mikel Arteta moved to a three-man midfield late last year, but with Martin Odegaard now the club captain and Thomas Partey undroppable at the base of it, there is likely only one player who makes way for Caicedo.

READ: How Arsenal would line up with £75m Caicedo

Further back, Kieren Tierney's predicament goes from bad to worse, meanwhile. The Scot had already lost his place at left-back to summer signing Oleksandr Zinchenko, but the former Manchester City man's ability to play in midfield becomes a moot point with the extra body in there.

A pair of obvious losers are Mohamed Elneny and Albert Sambi Lokonga. The current deputies at central defensive midfield, they slip down the pecking order to fourth- and fifth-choice respectively.

Elneny might stick around after his serious knee injury, but Sambi Lokonga's Arsenal days are surely now numbered.

Also worth considering is the fact that Alexis Mac Allister might not get his own big money move to Arsenal, or indeed anybody else, this winter, with Brighton unwilling to part with two of their central midfielders in the same transfer window.