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Layvin Kurzawa has been at PSG for five years.
Layvin Kurzawa has been at PSG for five years. Photograph: Sébastien Nogier/EPA
Layvin Kurzawa has been at PSG for five years. Photograph: Sébastien Nogier/EPA

Arsenal look to sign PSG’s Layvin Kurzawa to ease full-back crisis

This article is more than 4 years old
Arsenal’s two left-backs are out injured
Kurzawa, 27, out of contract in the summer

Arsenal are exploring the possibility of a deal for the Paris Saint-Germain left-back Layvin Kurzawa as Mikel Arteta looks to reinforce a defence ravaged by injury. Contact has been made between the clubs and, although a deal remains some way off, Kurzawa is the leading candidate to fill what has become a problem position.

The move could be completed before the January transfer deadline and would appeal for several reasons, one of which would be its low cost given the 27-year-old’s contract with the Ligue 1 champions expires in June.

The left-back role has felt like a cursed one for Arsenal this season. They signed Kieran Tierney from Celtic for £25m last August knowing he was still recovering from a double hernia operation but the Scotland international managed only 11 games upon his return to fitness before suffering a dislocated shoulder that rules him out until March.

Sead Kolasinac has also struggled for fitness and will miss Saturday’s home game against Sheffield United, with the young winger Bukayo Saka likely to deputise.

Arteta has said no arrivals are close but did hint at his priorities when asked about his slim resources at full-back – which extend to the right-back position given Héctor Bellerín’s problems and the season-ending injury sustained by Calum Chambers last month.

“We are playing with full-backs that are not full-backs,” the Arsenal manager said. “They are wingers or central midfielders and could we afford to lose full-backs? No, but we don’t have any full-backs.”

Kurzawa, who has 12 caps for France, played the full 90 minutes of PSG’s 4-1 win at his previous club Monaco on Wednesday but has not been a regular in the side since arriving in August 2015, making 90 starts. Given that neither Tierney nor Kolasinac is sidelined beyond the medium term, Arsenal’s keenness to do a deal reflects their urgency to get a poor season on track.

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