Perry Groves wants Arsenal to sign Sevilla midfielder Steven N’Zonzi to strengthen the engine room ahead of the new season.

Having completed the signings of Sead Kolašinac and Alexandre Lacazette without too much trouble, Arsenal have since turned their attentions to Thomas Lemar. However, there hasn’t been much progress on a deal for Lemar in recent weeks.

Monaco have sold three other first-team players to English clubs already and aren’t keen to lose any more. Perry Groves has told bwin that he thinks the club should now look at N’Zonzi, who scored in Sevilla’s win over the Gunners at the weekend.

Groves was quoted as saying: “I’ve been a massive fan of Steven N’Zonzi. I think he could do a real job in the centre of that midfield for us, adding the steel he did at Stoke and Blackburn. He’s a destroyer.”

Standing at 6’3″, N’Zonzi would certainly add a physical presence to the midfield. He was Stoke’s player of the year in 2014/15, and recently won his first senior honours with Sevilla, the UEFA Europa League in 2015/16. He made the official Europa League team of the season that year too.

However, Arsenal spent over £30m on Granit Xhaka just a year ago, who currently sits in front of the defence. It seems more likely the Gunners would want to spend on a box-to-box partner to Xhaka, rather than replace him with N’Zonzi who is four years his senior.

Add to that the fact Arsenal seem more interested in a forward player at this moment in time. Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Özil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all have expiring contracts, so the more pressing need is to buy replacements or tie them down to long-term deals.