Mikel Arteta discouraged Arsenal’s interest in Chelsea star

Joao Pedro was one of the attackers Arsenal considered adding to their squad in the last transfer window after they missed out on Julian Alvarez.

Their main focus had been convincing the Argentinian to join them, but at some point, the Gunners accepted that he would not make the move and turned their attention towards signing other strikers.

Kai Havertz is injury-prone, while Victor Gyokeres is nowhere near the level of performance the Gunners want from him, which is one of the reasons they opted to make a move for another striker.

After admitting defeat in their bid to sign Alvarez, the Gunners turned their attention to Pedro and discussed a move for the Brazilian internally. BBC Sport says Mikel Arteta was not convinced about adding him to his squad.

The manager assessed him and was not convinced that the Brazilian would fit his system, so Arsenal opted against making an approach for him.

Arteta was not convinced by Pedro

Pedro remains a key player at Chelsea, and he recently signed a new contract, so there is no guarantee that the Blues would have allowed him to leave the club this summer.

Arsenal therefore faced uncertainty over whether a move could have been completed, even if the Gunners had decided to pursue the Chelsea attacker more seriously.

The decision ultimately came down to Arteta’s assessment of whether Pedro would fit the system he wanted to use. The Arsenal manager was not convinced, meaning the Gunners chose not to approach him.