Arsenal are set to make an emergency move for Chelsea defender Gary Cahill, after suffering a double injury blow in Friday’s FA Cup clash with Manchester United.

The Mirror claim Unai Emery is set to ‘send an emergency SOS’ to Cahill before the transfer window closes.

The 33-year-old has been promised a departure this month, as Maurizio Sarri refuses to use him. Emery had reportedly been ‘keeping tabs’ on the centre-back, and the coach is weighing up if he can bring the Chelsea man in on Arsenal’s budget.

The Gunners have Fulham for competition in the transfer race. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too difficult to convince the Englishman to play for a team closer to the top of the table and playing in Europe.

Cahill has made seven appearances for Chelsea this season, captaining the side in all of his starts. He led the team to six wins, only failing to secure victory in his 20-minute substitute appearance against West Ham United, which ended 0-0.

Nonetheless, Cahill just doesn’t fill the bill as the type of centre-back Sarri wants in his team.

Arsenal have Rob Holding out for the season, Sokratis Papastathopoulos out until the end of February, Laurent Koscielny injured for an unspecified length of time, and no recall clause in Calum Chambers’ contract. Shkodran Mustafi and Konstantinos Mavropanos are the only two senior centre-backs confirmed to be fit for the next month.

The likes of Julio Pleguezuelo and Zech Medley could end up getting promoted, as well as Granit Xhaka, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Nacho Monreal playing out of position, but none of those five players have huge amounts of centre-back experience at the top level. Cahill could fill the gap until summer, assuming Arsenal can convince him and Chelsea.