Arsenal Report: Unpopular Arsenal man will be out the door if Mislintat link-up happens

According to The Express, Arsenal will compete with Liverpool for the signature of struggling Barcelona star Ousmane Dembélé in January.

The Frenchman, who joined the Spanish giants for £135m in 2017, has had mixed fortunes whilst playing in La Liga, as he obviously has a raft of talent to compete with.

Arsenal are believed to have an advantage ahead of Liverpool for this transfer, as it would see Dembélé team up with Arsenal head of recruitment Sven Mislintat, whom he was with at Bundesliga outfit Borussia Dortmund. However, the Catalan club do hope to recoup the money that they spent on the winger.

While this will be encouraging news for Arsenal, it may spell disaster for one player in particular, and that is Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian is already in a battle with Alex Iwobi for Unai Emery’s favour at Arsenal; another player will make his chances of regular playing time that much slimmer.

With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being deployed as a wide man so far this season, it makes Mkhitaryan’s position hotly contested, and, although there is still a good chance that the player will feature, some people have already cast doubt over his future. This is due to his playing style not suiting Unai Emery’s, and while that may have been enough to drive the former Man United player away, the arrival of Dembélé may be the final nail in the coffin.

The saving grace for the Armenian is that Danny Welbeck’s long-term injury may mean the club are thin on the ground. Even so, that may not be enough for Mkhitaryan.