Arsenal tempt Aston Villa with late £25 million bid for star midfielder hours before transfer window shuts

Arsenal have made an attempt to sign Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz who is also linked to other clubs in Europe.

The 24-year-old is in the last year of his contract at Villa Park and the club risk losing him for nothing if they do not sanction a deal now that they can get some money on him.

Coincidentally the Brazilian midfielder scored against the Gunners on Wednesday in the Premier League-even though it ended up being a face saving goal with Arsenal scoring late to secure victory.

Villa are desperately under pressure to keep their star players after an underwhelming start to the season that has left them 19th on the league table with just three points from their first five games of the campaign.

Steven Gerrard is a massive fan of the former Manchester City midfielders and admitted he was not in charge of deciding if the midfielder stayed on or joined Arsenal.

He told reporters: “  ”I’m not in control of that. There’s two people, well, there’s more than two people who are in control of that, but I’m certainly not one of them.

“That will be Douglas, that will be his agent and that will be what happens around that. I’d like to keep him, he’s a fantastic player, I’ve made that abundantly clear.

“We are not in a position where we need to lose our top players, but at the same time Douglas has a year to go and it is one of those really touchy situations where the club has to do what is best for the club, not necessarily what is best for me.”

Arsenal have started the season on fire with 15 points from their first five games and are top of the Premier League table.