Report: Edu has held face-to-face talks with agent of £50m-rated Arsenal target at Colney

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Arsenal have reportedly stepped up their efforts to land Arthur Melo on loan.

According to Goal.com, the Gunners held talks with the Juventus star’s agent on Wednesday.

Federico Pastorello reportedly travelled to Arsenal’s London Colney training base for the meeting with Edu.

The Gunners hope negotiations with Juventus will soon start to move forward, added the report.

However, the ball remains in the Italians’ court as they seek a replacement for Arthur before letting him go.

Arsenal have been targeting a new midfielder in the January transfer window.

Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny have been at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Meanwhile, Ainsley Maitland-Niles is on loan at Roma and Granit Xhaka is currently suspended.

On Tuesday, Charles Watts said on his YouTube channel that Juve are eyeing Denis Zakaria and Bruno Guimaraes.

If they can secure one of those players, then Arthur to Arsenal could go ahead, he suggested.

Last month, The Times reported that, while Arthur is surplus to requirements at Juve, they still rate him at £50million.

Arthur certainly fits the bill for Arsenal – 72 appearances for Barcelona, 44 for Juventus, and 21 Brazil caps are testament to his quality.

The likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Thomas Vermaelen have previously sung his praises.

Messi compared Arthur to Xavi, Iniesta called him “exceptional” and Vermaelen said “he has all the battling skills and the technical ability to go right to the top”.