Arsenal are planning another raid on but fear the champions in waiting won’t be as generous as they were last summer.
The Gunners have pushed ’s side all the way this season but are having fallen away during the course of the run-in.
Arsenal’s scintillating early season form was characterised by the energy, dynamism and Premier League nous of Gabriel Jesus and , who both joined the north London club from City little over 12 months ago.
City were happy to sell two genuine stalwarts to Arsenal back then but, according to , they will be reluctant to do business again now the north London club have emerged as a credible threat to their domestic dominance.
That will come as a blow to Mikel Arteta who is reported to have targeted a move for City’s out of favour full-back Joao Cancelo.
The Portugal international was surprisingly loaned to Bayern Munich in January but the Bundesliga giants and their new manager Thomas Tuchel have little desire to turn that into a permanent deal.
Arteta worked briefly with Cancelo at City before he was appointed as Arsenal manager three-and-a-half years ago and is hoping to sign a new full-back this summer who is capable of operating on both flanks.
The significance of Takehiro Tomiyasu’s injury has gone under the radar in the last few weeks, but Arsenal have badly missed the steady influence of the Japan international who underwent knee surgery in March.
Tomiyasu is not expected to have made a full recovery in time for the start of the new campaign, which would place an even greater strain on Zinchenko and Ben White, especially given Kieran Tierney’s likely departure.
Arsenal made efforts to sign Ivan Fresneda from Real Valladolid in January and could make a renewed attempt to sign the young Spaniard in the summer, but are likely to face competition from Borussia Dortmund.
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