by Mosope Ominiyi

According to reports in the Telegraph and Mirror, the Gunners are intrigued by the availability of Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko.

The Bosnian forward, who has been out-of-favour at the sky Blues in recent seasons, has done his best to impress when called upon, but is getting increasingly frustrated with his lack of opportunities in the first-team and is believed to be angling for a move away.

This was coupled with the fact that although Sergio Aguero was injured, as was Stevan Jovetic, Manuel Pellegrini did not put his faith in the striker when injury worries became a concern halfway through the 2014/15 campaign.

Edin Dzeko for Manchester City v Barcelona
Manchester City’s Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko reacts during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg football match between Manchester City and Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, northwest England, on February 24, 2015. AFP PHOTO / LLUIS GENE (Photo credit should read LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images)

Instead, he brought in Swansea City striker Wilfried Bony, who was coincidentally on African Cup of Nations duty with his native Ivory Coast at the time. Since then, Dzeko has been fed up and wants a solution this summer, to avoid his talent going to waste any longer.

The deal would make sense, but with that being said it will not come cheap. Arsenal are a direct Premier League rival to City, and although the Citizens value the 29-year-old at around £15million pounds, they’d most probably up the valuation to £25million if Wenger came calling.

Would he be a good fit for Arsenal? In just under 200 appearances for City, he’s netted 72 and created 39 assists. This stat is not exactly the best upon first viewing, but plenty of the appearances he’s made recently have been cameos – meaning he has barely finished ninety minutes of football altogether in the league.

In-fact last term, he only completed 90 minutes twice. In a 4-2 victory over Hull in September and a 5-0 thrashing against Newcastle in February. He struggled with an injury of his own, to his calf – which kept him out of action for almost three months.

At 29, he’s not getting any younger. He’s still a good striker at the moment, but would he be much of an improvement on Giroud? Not particularly. Both boast patches of good form and unimpressive spells too, but the Bosnian boasts plenty more European pedigree whilst having been benched – which is not exactly going to do wonders for your confidence, either.

To get in excess of £15m would be a good deal from a City perspective, as they are eager for younger options to bolster their ranks. However, he has proven his quality and would be a shrewd addition as long as Arséne did not break the bank in order to sign him. After all, we do have the likes of Alex Iwobi and Chuba Akpom and Danny Welbeck eager to force their way into a permanent striker role with the north Londoners.