With Arsenal still four points clear at the top of the Premier League, sauntering through the Champions League with a 100% record and on course to reach the Carabao Cup final, we can\u2019t stress enough the importance of clubs at home and abroad doing everything possible to deny them the quadruple. It doesn\u2019t bear thinking about.<\/p>\n
With the January window still open, here are 10 transfers which could help thwart the Gunners on their seemingly inexorable path to glory.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aston Villa sign Goncalo Ramos<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not contenders to be in the top five,\u201d Emery said after defeat to Everton, before falling awkwardly silent when asked\u00a0why he feels his side cannot compete with the Premier League\u2019s top clubs. He knows that everyone else knows it comes down to a lack of investment in his team, with Aston Villa\u2019s net spend near zero since he arrived at the club in October 2022.<\/p>\n
Neither Tammy Abraham nor Jean-Philippe Mateta are going to move the contender dial<\/a><\/strong> to any great degree, but Ramos, who\u2019s scored his 43 goals at a rate of one every 112 minutes for Paris Saint-Germain, could make a tangible difference.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Manchester City sign Michael Kayode<\/p>\n Pep Guardiola insisting he has \u201ca thousand other priorities\u201d ahead of long throws before signing arguably the face of the Premier League-wide campaign to bring it back into fashion would be lovely.<\/p>\n We suspect Guardiola\u2019s interest is more based upon Kayode\u2019s almost unrivalled ability to dribble past opponents from right-back, along with his aerial ability and his addition would bring about the end of the Matheus Nunes experiment, which has gone on for far too long.<\/p>\n But we\u2019re not sure we would enjoy anything more than some pinball in the Arsenal box following a Kayode throw-in leading to a City victory, either in the Premier League in April, or should they meet in the knockout competitions.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Every Premier League club\u2019s revelation of the season features Calafiori and The New Mbappe<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Real Madrid sign Vitinha<\/p>\n A penny for Xabi Alonso\u2019s thoughts should Real Madrid sign Vitinha after he begged Florentino Perez for a midfield conductor, was denied, then sacked and would be forced to watch the presentation ceremony of the very best midfield conductor in world football rock up at the Bernabeu a couple of weeks later.<\/p>\n We\u2019re essentially suggesting here that Real Madrid have a better chance of winning the Champions League with Vitinha than PSG do, and do indeed sign up to that view given both Los Blancos\u2019 astonishing ability to pull performances out of their proverbials when the tournament really kicks into gear and through what we reckon would be a monumental improvement in their team with the Portuguese star at the base of their midfield.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Al Nassr sign Gabriel Martinelli<\/p>\n The Saudi Pro League side are far more likely to give Arsenal\u2019s coffers a tidy boost in the summer, but we could\u00a0really\u00a0do with them sticking a ludicrous figure on the table for Martinelli<\/a><\/strong> in January, which Andrea Berta and the Arsenal board believe is too good to turn down,\u00a0preferably right at the very end, by which stage there\u2019s no time to source a replacement for a guy who\u2019s scored five goals in 305 Champions League minutes this season.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n PSG sign Julian Alvarez<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t so much about how Alvarez would improve PSG as they\u2019re already pretty well stocked up front and we strongly suspect the loss of Vitinha to Real Madrid will result in a typical and greatly missed implosion for the Ligue 1 giants which will see them dumped out of the Champions League in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n What we absolutely cannot have is Arsenal signing someone to replace Viktor Gyokeres<\/a><\/strong>, who \u2013 bless him \u2013 is doing his level best to ensure the Gunners puzzle remains unfinished by being as dog-eared a final piece as possible.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Manchester United sign Elliot Anderson<\/p>\n Michael Carrick made very clear the importance of taking advantage of the increased energy that comes with the arrival of a new manager as part of his Old Trafford revolution<\/a><\/strong>. The added motivation bore juicy fruit in the Manchester derby and they carried that momentum to the Emirates. What a bizarre feeling it was for Manchester United to be the lesser of two evils as neutrals across the country celebrated that Matheus Cunha stunner.<\/p>\n A new player bounce to add to the leap courtesy of Carrick wouldn\u2019t go amiss, even if Manchester United are indeed now firmly in the Premier League title race<\/a><\/strong> after *checks notes* two wins in two games without spending \u00a3100m on Anderson, who presumably no longer prefers a move to Manchester City as DNA will make short shrift of the eight-point gap between the two clubs.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Chelsea sign Mike Maignan<\/p>\n There are more than a few Chelsea-supporting Robert Sanchez apologists these days, and there has indeed been a significant improvement in his performances this season. But Liam Rosenior toying with the idea of second goalkeeper of 427 on the Chelsea books, Mr Jorgensen, isn\u2019t the greatest of fillips for the Spaniard, nor are the rumours of the Blues reigniting their interest in Maignan<\/a><\/strong>, who is said to have reached a verbal but not written agreement with AC Milan over an extension.<\/p>\n What we cannot allow is for Chelsea to gift Arsenal goals in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final as Sanchez did on two occasions in the first meeting.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Bayern Munich sign Yan Diomande<\/p>\n