After the long-term injury to Rob Holding, as well as recent extended absences for Laurent Koscielny and Konstantinos Mavropanos, Arsenal have to be thinking about investing in January.

As it stands, Arsenal have five senior centre-backs: Laurent Koscielny (slowly returning), Shkodran Mustafi (injured and suspended), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (suspended), Konstantinos Mavropanos (injured) and Rob Holding (injured). Even Julio Pleguezuelo seemingly got too close to the first-team and picked up a knock.

There are players who can fill in, like Nacho Monreal, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Mohamed Elneny and so on. Nonetheless, Arsenal really don’t have defenders they can rely on to play matches consistently, and they may need to dip into the transfer market to find one.

Let’s look at who the club have been linked with in recent weeks:

2Mario Hermoso

MADRID, SPAIN - SEPTEMBER 22: Mario Hermoso of RCD Espanyol controls the ball during the La Liga match between Real Madrid CF and RCD Espanyol at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on September 22, 2018 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images,)
MADRID, SPAIN – SEPTEMBER 22: Mario Hermoso of RCD Espanyol controls the ball during the La Liga match between Real Madrid CF and RCD Espanyol at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on September 22, 2018 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images,)
  • Age: 23
  • Position: Centre-back
  • Contract until: 2020
  • Club: Real Betis
  • Estimated transfer value: £18m

Recent reports from Spain suggest Arsenal are considering paying the €40m release clause for Espanyol defender Mario Hermoso in January.

Hermoso joined Espanyol from Real Madrid in 2017, having never appeared for Madrid’s first team after coming through their academy. Since then, the 23-year-old has really made a name for himself in La Liga.

Suddenly, there are rumours that Real Madrid want to activate their buy-back clause of €7.5m. However, Arsenal are also very interested, according to a report from Marca.

Hermoso has only missed one game of Espanyol’s league campaign so far, scoring a couple of goals and helping them keep five clean sheets. It’s no surprise the big clubs are starting to take an interest, and that interest will only increase after the Spaniard made his international debut last month.

Click ‘Next’ for more centre-backs linked with a January move to Arsenal