Barcelona linked with moves for Arsenal & Chelsea defenders

Posted Tuesday, November 06, 2018 by 101 GREAT GOALS

As per a report from Mundo Deportivo, La Liga champions Barcelona are keeping tabs on a pair of Premier League defenders.

Barcelona's campaign thus far

Despite a somewhat hit-and-miss start to the season, Ernesto Valverde's Barca currently sit 4 points clear at the top of La Liga, as well as 3 points clear atop their Champions League Group.

The main issue for the Blaugrana to this point in the campaign, on the domestic front at least, has been a lack of defensive stability, though.

The Catalan outfit have conceded 14 goals in their opening 11 La Liga fixtures.

To put this into context, Barca conceded just 29 goals in the entirety of their title-winning season last time out.

2nd-placed Atletico Madrid, meanwhile, have conceded just 6 league goals to this point in the campaign.

Barca's back four

Central to Barca's struggles at the back this season has been a changing central defensive partnership.

Samuel Umtiti, who played a key role in the club's La Liga title last season, as well as France's World Cup triumph this summer, has started just 5 of the Blaugrana's 11 league outings to this point in the campaign, with the stopper having been sidelined with a knee problem since the end of September.

And Umtiti's replacement, Clement Lenglet, while impressing of late, was only signed by Barcelona this summer, and thus has no previous experience of playing alongside Gerard Pique.

As such, the Spanish table-toppers have looked largely disorganized defensively over the early months of the season.

Chelsea and Arsenal stars targeted

As a result, as per the aforementioned report from Mundo Deportivo, Ernesto Valverde is on the lookout for additions to his central defensive ranks.

The Spanish tactician is concerned by the possibility that Samuel Umtiti will be forced to undergo knee surgery.

And, if this does turn out to be the case, then the Barca boss will reportedly target an experienced replacement for the Frenchman in January.

As such, all of Chelsea star David Luiz, Arsenal veteran Laurent Koscielny and, even more surprisingly, former Chelsea man Branislav Ivanovic are named as potential signings for the Blaugrana.

Each, for their own reasons, however, look highly unlikely to actually make the move to the Camp Nou.

Rayo Vallecano 2-3 Barcelona
Barca's latest outing saw the Spanish champions complete a stunning late comeback to defeat Rayo Vallecano by a solitary goal.

Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez both netted late to send the Catalans home with all 3 points.