Arsenal: 3 massive steps forward taken with Dayot Upamecano

Arsenal remain heavily linked to Dayot Upamecano, and if they were to sign him, here are three massive steps forward they would be taking.

Arsenal have been linked to Dayot Upamecano for what seems like forever, and with a price tag hovering around the £45m range, he remains the apple of many eyes. It’s been said all along that this move would have to wait until the summer, and with that summer fast approaching, it amy be time to finally invest into this defense with a massive overhaul signing.

Since Mikel Arteta took over Arsenal, his clear and obvious prerogative is fixing this defense. He’s already done a remarkable job with the resources he has, working David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis into an effective tripod.

He’s brought in some short-term solutions that could become long-term solutions, but given the no risk, high reward nature of the moves, even if they don’t, it’s no harm done.

But if Arteta wants true long-term solutions to ongoing problems, he is going to have to have either a lot of faith or a lot of money. Upamecano won’t come cheap, but if he does go and sign the RB Leipzig defender, here are three massive steps forward he’s taking.

3. Ruptures defensive structure

There are already a lot of changes coming to this defense in the summer. William Saliba will be arriving, we’ll see how viable Konstantinos Mavropanos is turning out to be, Calum Chambers will be back to health and Rob Holding will have done… something.

But we also have to factor in the ongoing presence of Luiz, Mustafi and Sokratis, all of whom rank as the top three options right now. That’s seven questions marks. All in one defense. Which is a lot to handle.

You bring in Upamecano and he shoots right to the top. All of a sudden we have a beacon of what these other defenders need to amount to, but more than that, we have a makeweight that allows us to start cutting loose some of the spare change—Sokratis, Mustafi and/or Luiz.

This defense becomes something completely different with Upamecano, and in the best way possible.

Moving on to No. 2.