Arsenal Should Have a Look At Jamaal Lascelles

Arsenal can capitalize on Newcastle’s fall, as their young center back Jamaal Lascelles could become a transfer target for Premier League sides.

Arsenal are in need of another center back, but thanks to the deterioration of some of their English squad members they could be in need of another home-grown player as well.

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Newcastle center back Jamaal Lascelles could answer both of these questions in one fell swoop. And it may be for a championship price tag that could be much lower than what Arsenal would have to spend to nab a Premier League defender.

Newcastle’s most recent result, a 0-0 draw with the joke that Aston Villa have become, may have consigned them to relegation.

The players in Rafa Benitez’s side have looked more positive and motivated in recent weeks after the Spaniard took over, but in a match that everyone expected them to win they fell completely flat on their faces.

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Some of the better players in the squad looked like they were figuring out how to get out of Tyneside rather than how to win the match against the Villains. Nonetheless, Jamaal Lascelles and his partner Chancel Mbemba – who is also a promising player, I might add – still kept a clean sheet.

Lascelles has kept three clean sheets in the six appearances since he was brought into the Newcastle team as one of the first-team center backs.

Benitez’s ability to organize a side defensively has been on display. While the Toon have conceded 2+ goals twice in that same run of six games, Newcastle hadn’t kept a clean sheet before those games since October 2015.

A fourth natural center back is crucial for Arsenal if they want to maintain their top-four status and (with an upgrade on one of their current central defenders) even challenge for a title.

Calum Chambers is not nailed in as a central defender, and Per Mertesacker could be coming to the end of his run as the starter at the back. In other words, one center back – maybe even two – needs to come in.

The need for a new crop of home-grown talent is also becoming more and more evident. Arsenal’s first eleven has often featured only one or two English players, and that was only in the second half of the season.

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Danny Welbeck has been the English talent with the most appearances this season, and he wasn’t featuring at all in 2015. Kieran Gibbs has been consigned to the bench by Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott have lost all confidence and form, and it remains to be seen if Jack Wilshere can stay fit for a lengthy run in the team.

If Arsene Wenger is comfortable with that group, then that’s another reason that he needs to go. Frankly, the youth system at Arsenal has not been up to scratch with producing young players, and there has not been enough of an effort (excluding beloved Hector Bellerin) to compensate for that by going out and buying promising English players.

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Lascelles presents a perfect opportunity: he’s young, English, capable and experienced in the top flight. If Wenger can pair him with Laurent Koscielny and Lascelles can improve further, he could be part of the answer to both of these problems.