Arsenal’s summer started out pretty sedately. A reported £45m transfer budget was said to be restricting their attempts to recruit players of sufficient quality. However, as the transfer deadline approached, things began to take shape.

After the arrival of Gabriel Martinelli on July 2nd, the recruitment gathered momentum with Dani Ceballos and William Saliba arriving on the same day before the mammoth transfer of Nicolas Pepe came out of nowhere.

It seems as, though, there is one final bizarre twist to this quite unprecedented transfer window for the Gunners with the club’s interest in Chelsea’s David Luiz.

It is believed that the Brazilian is concerned that he may not be a regular first-team player under Frank Lampard this season. This reportedly led to a series of falling-outs during training this week before he trained away from the first team today.

It appears he sees Arsenal as his way out. He has worked under manager Unai Emery before at Paris Saint-Germain and the fact that the club is looking for a new centre-back adds fuel to the fire.

You can’t rule out Luiz arriving on deadline day, especially considering the type of transfer window Arsenal have had. Whether he would be the right choice for the Gunners, it seems questionable.

Looking at his record for Chelsea last season, his numbers just don’t stack up against Arsenal’s other defenders, even Shkodran Mustafi. He wins fewer aerial duels, tackles and interceptions than the German.

In the area where he is equal: defensive duels (one-on-one battles with opponents, winning 68% to 69% according to Wyscout), he is actually involved in fewer of them than the Arsenal star per 90 minutes.

This would be fine if we knew Luiz was prone to fewer mistakes than Mustafi. Despite the German statistically being a good defender, his poor concentration has cost Arsenal a number of goals over the past few years. Luiz seems to suffer from the same affliction.

With the Gunners currently struggling to secure a top defender, however, it appears they have landed on Luiz with other options seemingly out of reach.

You just know that there will be at least one game next season when Luiz and Mustafi will be partnered in the centre of defence; such a scenario would shred the nerves of most Arsenal supporters.

Even so, the arrival of the Brazilian at Arsenal now looks like an increasingly likely possibility, what a strange summer it has been.