Transfer news LIVE: Arsenal keen on €100m Moussa Diaby and Newcastle want Chelsea trio

Arsenal are keeping an eye on former Leeds winger, Raphinha, and his ongoing situation at Barcelona. The Gunners failed in their pursuit of Mykhailo Mudryk but the new Chelsea man was not the only forward player the club have been looking at in this window.

Apparently Arsenal are “prepared for an opportunity” to sign Raphinha if it arises. They made a bid for the winger in the summer before he went to the Nou Camp but Raphinha has started just seven games in La Liga this season and there are rumours that Barcelona may be open to letting him leave the club.

Shakhtar Donetsk will donate more than £20million of the transfer fee received for Mikhailo Mudryk to Ukrainian soldiers.

The 22-year-old forward joined Chelsea for £88m on Sunday after the Blues moved late to hijack a move to Premier League rivals Arsenal.

Shakhtar held out in negotiations for the biggest possible fee with a portion now set to go to “soldiers, defenders and their families” in the ongoing defence against the Russian invasion.

“I want to thank the entire civilised world for helping Ukraine,” club president Rinat Akhmetov said in a statement.

Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi has spoken on out the Leandro Trossard situation, and said the door is open for the Belgian winger to stay at the Amex.

Does this mean Trossard may be staying, or is it a way of protecting the value of the player? Saying he’s never going to play for you again is a surefire way of cutting the asking price, after all.

Thirty-eight points. It used to be the sum total of Newcastle’s ambitions for a season in the dog days of Mike Ashley’s reign. It was enough to secure them their Premier League status.

Thirty-eight points. It is Newcastle’s return in the first half of this season. If even the most rudimentary of maths shows it is an average of two per game, it promises to bring them Champions League football. Or, to put it in terms that were more familiar until recently, they are safe from relegation with 19 games to go.

If they are, in effect, twice as good as they used to be with roughly half a new team, and six players who predated their takeover and subsequent spending spree started the win over Fulham, there are other examples of the exponential improvement that threatens to carry them into the European elite.

The 38 points Newcastle have from 19 games is more than three times as many as the 11 they had taken at this stage last season. The 11 goals they have conceded is barely more than a quarter of the 42 they had let in by this point 12 months ago. Eddie Howe’s language tends to be unremarkable, but the numbers are.

“It’s been a really good first half of the season for us,” said the Newcastle manager. “We’ve improved from the start of the season to now. I think there’s still more growth in the team to come.”

Graham Potter punched the air at full-time following his side’s narrow 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace. It seemed a fair reaction, given the pressure cooker that is Chelsea at the moment following a winless 2023 up to now.

A worsening injury crisis, big money deals and even bigger contracts have been thrown into a boiling, bubbling pot of new ownership, struggling coach and discontented fans.

Saturday’s win saw all of these issues unfold and more in a bizarre, frustrating and nervous afternoon of football.

After the on-pitch action had begun, murmurs began: Chelsea had announced the signing of Mykhailo Mudryk 20 minutes into the match.

By Ollie Cooper:

It seems an absurd question about a player so far clear in the race for the Golden Boot. But the Norway international was a peripheral figure in Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League derby defeat to Manchester United, having only a couple of half-chances and just 19 touches in the match.

Haaland has now gone three games without a goal – hardly a crisis, particularly as he was only a second-half substitute at Southampton, but a dip by the standards of a player who had 27 in his first 21 outings.

More:

In a sign that they might not be the most well-run club these days, Barcelona want to re-sign Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang from Chelsea.

Barca bought Aubameyang less than 12 months ago from Arsenal, before deciding he was surplus to requirements at the Nou Camp and selling him to Chelsea in the summer to clear the Gabonese striker off their wage books.

Aubameyang signed a two-year contract at Stamford Bridge but the manager who wooed him, Thomas Tuchel, was sacked by the Chelsea board days later and replaced by Graham Potter. The striker has scored only one Premier League goal so far for the Blues.

Now Barca want him back, says the Telegraph, but fear they may face a legal challenge to re-sign a player in this way.

Liverpool are considering moving for Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves now, rather than in the summer, in a bid to solve their disastrous form, writes the Mirror.

The Reds endured a humbling at Brighton on the weekend, losing 3-0 and being played off the pitch by their slick opponents. Jurgen Klopp has had to contend with plenty of injuries this season, particularly in forward positions, but it is in midfield which many observers have identified as major problem.

Mainstays like Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcantara are in their 30s now while Fabinho is struggling for consistent fitness, and younger players like Fabio Carvalho and Harvey Elliott are still learning on the job.

That means Liverpool are looking to bring in an all-action midfielder in his prime, and Wolves’ Ruben Neves has been identified as a serious option.

Meanwhile Chelsea have decided they are willing to let Raheem Sterling leave the club, writes Football Insider, having splurged on Mykhailo Mudryk among a whole host of new signings at the club.

The 22-year-old Mudryk, who was announced by the Stamford Bridge club during their Premier League game with Crystal Palace on Sunday, had seemed set for Arsenal as late as Thursday but it was always Chelsea’s intention to go in big for the player, and they followed that through with offers that were simply too good to turn down.

Chelsea have already added striker David Datro Fofana from Molde and centre-back Benoit Badiashile from Monaco in the January window, as Todd Boehly looks to give new boss Graham Potter the tools to turn around the team’s performance. Brazilian youngster Andrey Santos was also added from Vasco da Gama, while Joao Felix joined on loan from Atletico Madrid - only to be sent-off on his debut in the defeat to Fulham.

Now they need to offload at least one of many their forwards, and Sterling, who only joined this summer, could be on the chopping block. Finding a suitor for the 28-year-old and his vast wages could be a challenge, however.

And, as The Independent has reported, Arsenal have been offered the chance to sign Leandro Trossard from Brighton after the Belgian’s recent fallout with manager Roberto De Zerbi.

It remains to be seen whether Arsenal believe Trossard, 28, is the right fit.