Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown has asked the club to sign Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi to improve the team, following the club’s opening day defeat to Brentford.
Keown who played for Arsenal in two spells between 1984-86 and 1993-2004, winning the Premier League title three times including as an Invicibles.
The former CB insists Mikel Arteta’s team lacks steel in the midfield and should be looking in the direction of Ndidi or Liverpool-target Youri Tielemans.
Lately, the North London club have been linked with another Leicester City player, England international James Maddison, but according to the 55 year-old former defender, Arsenal’s problem is not creativity rather it’s defensive muscle in the middle.
‘The missing ingredient for Arsenal tonight was steel so I’m not sure Maddison is the player we should be going for,’ Keown told Stadium Astro.
‘If I am going to Leicester, I’m going for Tielemans or Ndidi, I’m not going for Maddison because Arsenal need that type of player first.
‘You have to build that structure to the team. They have [Emile] Smith Rowe, they have that creativity.
‘You just want [Alexandre] Lacazette and [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang back again. But I think the base of that team, we had a young debutant [Albert Sambi Lokonga] playing there tonight [Friday].
‘But I’m looking at that as an area where Arsenal should be buying an international player.
‘If you really want to make it happen, you have to be able to dictate games in that midfield and Arsenal at the moment, it is an area that really concerns me.’
Ndidi, who is under contract at Leicester City until June 2024, is three games away from reaching a milestone of 150 appearances in the Premier League.
