William Gallas names the 'nasty' player that Arsenal should sign to help Declan Rice

Former Arsenal defender William Gallas named the player Arsenal should re-sign to help Declan Rice in midfield.

Rice has been among the Premier League’s most impressive performers since completing a £105million deal from West Ham to Arsenal.

However, Arsenal have hit a dismal spell of form. Having won just once in their last seven games, Mikel Arteta’s side squandered the chance to go to the Premier League summit on multiple occasions over the Christmas period.

And Gallas has claimed Arsenal should reignite their form by resigning Granit Xhaka, who left the club in the summer for Bundesliga high-flyers Bayer Leverkusen.

Speaking to Gambling Zone Gallas explained: “You need a midfielder who can be a bit nasty.

“Xhaka was that player. He’d put in tackles, playing rough football and would show to opponents that you can’t mess around with Arsenal. I don’t think they have that player.

“Rice is a good player. He’s done well at Arsenal but you need a player around him who could do that job and they don’t have that player.

“However, Arteta was an assistant coach at City with Guardiola, everything he is doing with Arsenal is what Guardiola has been doing with City.

“Teams under Pep at City haven’t had that type of player. Xhaka could play football but sometimes he was also rough.”

Gallas also warned Arsenal of the dangers of signing Brentford’s Ivan Toney, who has only just returned from a gambling ban.

He said: “How much would Arsenal or Chelsea pay for him? Some clubs are thick.

“They don’t realise that there’s too much money in football so they’ll pay £100m for Toney.

“That means the player has to be an international player. He has hardly played for England. How can you explain to me that his price is £100m?

“If you buy a player for £100m, he has to be a young player. Spending £100m on a 27-year-old is too much.

“Either you spend £100m on an international player or a young player that a team can invest in for the long-term.”

Topics: Football, Declan Rice, Arsenal, Granit Xhaka, Bayer Leverkusen, Transfers, Fan Reactions

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.