According to Sports Boom, the Premier League champions are ready to test Aston Villa’s resolve after William Saliba was ruled out for an “extended period”. Arsenal’s interest makes immediate sense on a football level, even if completing a deal with Villa would be anything but straightforward. He can play in central defence and at right-back, he knows the intensity of the Premier League, and he would not require an adaptation period of the sort many overseas signings need. Sports Boom notes that he “helped the club lift the UEFA Europa League last season while also playing a key role in their impressive fourth-place Premier League finish”. That balance, between necessity on one side and resistance on the other, is what makes this one of the more compelling Premier League transfer stories of the moment.