Houssem Aouar is the missing piece to unlock Arsenal's true potential under Mikel Arteta

That Arsenal's midfield needs an injection of something new has been apparent for some time. The only question has been how to fix it and who should be the man to do that.

For some it is dynamism, ball-carrying and tackling that is required in the Arsenal engine room. They look back fondly on the days of success this club once enjoyed and note the absence of a Patrick Vieira, a box-to-box midfielder and a leader, a man who could drive his team up the pitch through pure force of will.

Mikel Arteta wants to bring Houssem Aouar to the Emirates this summer

That Arsenal's midfield needs an injection of something new has been apparent for some time. The only question has been how to fix it and who should be the man to do that.

For some it is dynamism, ball-carrying and tackling that is required in the Arsenal engine room. They look back fondly on the days of success this club once enjoyed and note the absence of a Patrick Vieira, a box-to-box midfielder and a leader, a man who could drive his team up the pitch through pure force of will.

Finding the next Vieira has been a project defined by its numerous false dawns, from the injury-prone Abou Diaby to the undersized Lucas Torreira, but ought to be seen as an impossible task. Arsenal have not found a true successor to the Invincible captain because few if any have existed since.

Thomas Partey may have many of the traits Arsenal need now and for some he is the answer, albeit an expensive one. Atletico Madrid's message throughout the window has been pay his £45million release clause in full and he's yours.

Would Partey improve Arsenal? Indisputably. Yet what was abudantly clear in the dog days of the elongated 2019/20 season was that there was a certain class of opponents - the ones Arsenal should be beating more often than they did - against whom the answer was not greater verticality.

When teams as varied as Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur sat in a low block and challenged Arsenal to break them down the Gunners had no idea what to do. Winning positions were frittered away with Arteta's players incapable of crafting their way around resilient defences.

Arsenal needed an eye for something else.

Houssem Aouar might just be the man to bring them that.

The Gunners saw a £32million bid for Aouar rejected last week but that will not deter them. As JoriPress revealed on Saturday, a second bid is being prepared with Arsenal loath to let slip away this opportunity to secure one of Europe's best young talents.

It is no secret what the midfield options Mikel Arteta has made available to himself bring and do not bring to the side. Since switching to a 3-4-3 the Arsenal manager has generally favoured a double pivot of Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos although since his return from loan at Besiktas Mohamed Elneny has also won himself extended opportunities.

Ceballos may be more elegant and forward-looking but all three have found success in similar roles: keeping Arsenal moving forward from deep, offering solidity in front of an unreliable defence and rarely giving the ball away. What they were not is chance creators or finishers.

Between them Arsenal's midfield provided a grand total of 10 goals across all competitions last season. Subtract Joe Willock from that list and it is just five between them.

The numbers are no more impressive in terms of assists either, eight across the board with no player laying on more than two goals for his team-mates.

Compare those to the output of Aouar alone and it is clear that the Gunners are getting a midfielder who can make a far greater contribution on the scoresheet. On his own last season the 22-year-old betted the assist tally of Arsenal's central options with 10, weighing in with a further nine goals.

Where so many of Arsenal's current midfield options tend to be more focused around building towards a goal Aouar seems to be a player who is more capable of bringing the decisive input late in passages of play.

That was apparent not just in Ligue 1 but on a greater stage. Arsenal know for experience with the likes of Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette, both of whom had mixed first seasons after big money moves, that it can take time to make the step up from French football to the English game.

It will come as some relief to see that Aouar is translating his domestic performances onto the biggest stage of all. The young midfielder was the shining light of Lyon's surprise run to the Champions League semi-final, providing four assists and averaging 2.66 shot creating actions per 90 against some of Europe's finest defences, according to fbref.

By way of comparison none of Ceballos, Xhaka, Lucas Torreira or Matteo Guendouzi matched that average across all competitions last season.

It is not just that Aouar creates shots for his team-mates but how he does so, predominantly from open play. Of the 67 shooting opportunities he created last season 79% came either from dribbles or open play passes. For a player like Ceballos, the Frenchman's most natural rival if Arteta sticks with his current system, that proporiton is nine percentage points lower.

Notably Ceballos did not once beat an opponent off the dribble in a move that then led to Arsenal registering a shot on goal. That is not to say that the Spaniard cannot get past his man, last season he completed 1.5 take ons per 90 according to Opta data. Aouar completed 3.1.

Ceballos might be the closest comparison to Aouar of the options Arteta has made available to himself (i.e. not Mesut Ozil) but drawing lines between the two tends to emphasise the differences between the two rather than highlighting holes in either's game.

Last season Ceballos described himself as someone who "like to touch the ball as much as possible", noting he had become a "much more tactical and technical player" under Arteta's influence. Compared to Aouar he was far more involved in his team's play, attempting an average of 66 passes per 90 as opposed to the 48 of the man who could eventually be his team-mate.

Both his strength and something of a weakness last season was how Ceballos simply kept possession, not always pushing the ball upfield but rarely giving it away. Of each of those 66 passes he attempted around 39 went sideways, 10 backwards. He kept Arsenal ticking along.

If Ceballos proved to be their steadying influence last season then think of Aouar as Arsenal's propellant, one who can drive this team further forward. It was a role he played with perhaps his greatest aplomb on a big stage in the 3-1 win over Manchester City in Lisbon earlier this summer, playing ahead of a back three if Arteta was wondering about his tactical versatility.

In purely statistical terms it was an unremarkable performance by Aouar, who completed 12 passes in 97 minutes and found a team-mate with just one of his four passes into the final third. Yet to look at raw numbers is to miss how the youngster caused such great problems for City.

Whenever the ball came his way his head was up, looking to spring Memphis Depay, Karl Toko Ekambi or Moussa Dembele in behind. Take the 72nd minute, when Maxence Caquet clears a corner in his direction.

Staying strong as Joao Cancelo quite literally grabs hold of him, Aouar is able to break free of one Manchester City defender before sending Raheem Sterling tumbling to the ground. That draws Ilkay Gundogan forward, giving Lyon's No.8 the opportunity to slip a pass in behind for Memphis Depay. That the Dutch forward can't quite reach the through ball is largely due to Ederson's pace off the line.

Moments later he would, thanks to a bit of good fortune when the City defence failed to realise Dembele was onside, get his assist.

rsenal had been following Aouar long before that match and Lyon's sterling form on the European stage. We may never know if they still had any doubts about the youngster prior to the return of Champions League football in August, if they did those would have been emphatically assuaged in Lisbon.

Indeed at the time it felt as though Arsenal's moment to land Aouar might have passed them by, that this exceptional talent was destined for a move to a higher echelon of clubs. It says everything for the impression Arteta has made across Europe that he is said to be so intrigued by the possibility of working with the Spaniard.

Equally Arsenal might just be the right fit for Aouar, a side crying out for just the qualities he provides. Adding a player like him to the team could propel them further and faster along their path up the Premier League.