Valencia are targeting Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Paulista, claim a radio station in the Spanish city.

COPE Valencia have posted on Twitter that Valencia are in the market for a defender, after selling Shkodran Mustafi to Arsenal last year, and they’ve identified Gabriel and Kurt Zouma of Chelsea as targets.

Gabriel joined Arsenal in the first place from La Liga, where he was playing for Villarreal. He has had a mixed time with the Gunners, disrupted by injuries at key periods when he had the chance to break through into the first team.

Arsenal also have a number of centre-backs on the books, most of whom are either ahead of Gabriel in Arsène Wenger’s preferred options or are younger and therefore don’t have such a need to break through quickly. So it does seem like if one of them is going to leave on a permanent deal, it would be the Brazilian.

However, until there is something more concrete in terms of the club’s plans to sell, and with Gabriel still currently out with injury, we’ll just have to wait to know if there’s anything to this.