Arsenal ready to 'battle' Tottenham for Barcelona winger amid Alexander Isak prediction

Arsenal now have a free weekend to recover after crashing out of the Carabao Cup against Newcastle United on Wednesday night, missing out on a Wembley final. The Gunners have already dropped out of the FA Cup, so they will have this weekend free, returning to action against Leicester City a week on Saturday.

The Gunners will now largely be able to concentrate on their Premier League title efforts, with the transfer window shut and cup football all done and dusted, although their Champions League hopes remain alive. Here we round up all the latest news and transfer rumours surrounding the Emirates Stadium.

Isak backed for Arsenal

Paul Merson believes Arsenal are one of the few candidates in with a realistic chance of signing Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak. “But the lad’s a special player,” he told Sky Sports News. “On the way in, I was thinking, where’s he going to go? Where can he go? He’s not going Man City, he’s not going to go Man United, I don’t think Man United have the money to buy anybody anyway, he’s not going to go Tottenham, I don’t think he’s going to go Villa.

“He can only go to Arsenal in the whole world really, unless it’s Real Madrid and they already got [Kylian] Mbappe anyway. So, for me, it’s only Arsenal he can go and then it’ll be up to him, whether he wants to go and play for Arsenal, I might win something or stay at Newcastle and might win something.”

Torres interest

Arsenal could show interest in a deal to sign Barcelona winger Ferran Torres in the summer after being briefly linked with a move in January. Torres was linked with an exit from Barca in January, but the Catalan giants reportedly refused to sell due to their lack of squad depth.

According to Marca, Arsenal and Tottenham are showing interest ahead of the summer, both keen to offer Torres a return to the Premier League. Torres scored nine times in 28 league games for Manchester City during his spell there, and perhaps surprisingly, he is still only 24 years of age. Barca would reportedly demand around £20million to sell the winger should they decide to let him go.

Arteta on Newcastle defeat

Arsenal boss Arteta says his side must ‘swallow’ the Newcastle defeat and move on swiftly. He said after the game: “We need to swallow this one, it’s a tough one and we had a lot of expectations.

“We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result that we brought from London, but there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do was on the pitch a few minutes ago. Now we have to look forward, first of all I think this is going to be a painful one, and when we’re in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play for.”

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