Loic Perrin who plays for French club Saint Etienne may be the incoming centre back to solve Arsenal’s lack of defenders. Perrin is the current captain of the French club and maybe available for as little as £6 million which may make the deal a possibility.

Perrin is a versatile player who can play in numerous positions such as full back, centre back and even defensive midfield. Further to this he would also be eligible for the champion’s league as Saint Etienne did not qualify which is a bonus considering targets such as Hummels would be cup tied.

Just 48 hours after scraping past a resilient QPR team Arsenal must make their second short trip across London to face West Ham with a victory overtaking them in the league.

Their loss (and team performance) against the league leaders on Boxing day was perceived by many as a whisper of their true capabilities, and it seemed even before the Chelsea game Big Sam had at least one eye on Sundays game against the Gunners by dropping key players Song and Sakho from the starting eleven.

These two players, in their own differing ways, have impacted heavily on West Hams performances this season. With Sakho they have a goal scorer who has filled Carroll’s boots admirably, scoring 6 and assisting 3 whilst missing a fair number of games through injury himself.

 

Arsenal will be looking to bounce back from the late Martin Skrtel equalizer in the Liverpool game last Sunday. With tough away fixtures against West Ham and Southampton to come in the hectic Christmas period, this is a must win game for Arsenal to move up the table.

Arsenal have only lost in one of their past seventeen boxing day fixtures and will be looking to continue that good run against a side that is yet to pick up a point and only scored three goals away this season.

Arsenal players took to Twitter and Instagram to wish happy holidays to their fans and as always, Lukas Podolski was the man to watch, at least on the social media.

Lukas Podolski, who has started three fewer games than the Gunners’ third choice goal-keeper is currently targeted by Inter Milan, who seem to have agreed a deal for the Arsenal forward.

Roberto Mancini looks to reinforce his team that currently sits at seventh in Serie A with the addition of the World Cup winner to his roster.