{"id":19032,"date":"2026-07-20T02:29:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19032"},"modified":"2026-07-20T02:29:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T02:29:00","slug":"arsenal-to-battle-chelsea-for-french-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19032","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal to battle Chelsea for French star?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/NewsArticle\">\n<!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<h6>News<span> \u00bb <\/span>Premier League news<span> \u00bb <\/span>Arsenal news<\/h6>\n<p class=\"articletimestamp\">July 19, 2026 21:38 GMT (UK), by <!-- Author Start -->Sri Aswin<!-- Author End -->\n<\/p>\n<h6>View Arsenal summer 2026 transfer targets<\/h6>\n<div style=\"float:right\">\n<figure>\n<p class=\"article_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/imghold\/largestLacroix.jpg\" title=\"Arsenal to battle Chelsea for French star?\" alt=\"Arsenal to battle Chelsea for French star?\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">Arsenal enter Lacroix race<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:18px; width:450px;\">\n<div style=\"display:inline; border:0px; padding-left:2px; padding-top:3px;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/images\/football_transfer_centre.png\" title=\"Football Transfer Centre\" alt=\"Football Transfer Centre\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Arsenal could go head-to-head with Chelsea to sign Crystal Palace defender <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Maxence Lacroix<\/span><\/span>  this summer<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p>The Gunners recently suffered a big setback as <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">William Saliba<\/span><\/span>  picked up a back injury while playing for France in the World Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman&#8217;s injury situation will be assessed in the coming days, and reports claim that he could be sidelined for the next four to five months.<\/p>\n<p>This could urge the Gunners to pursue an experienced cover for him, and Lacroix is one of the names being discussed internally among the hierarchy.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea have already made their move for the Palace centre-back, but they are still reluctant to meet the reported\u00a0\u00a355 million valuation for the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal have a good working relationship with the Eagles, having signed <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">God bless you<\/span><\/span>  last summer. Eze was close to joining Spurs before the Gunners hijacked the deal.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners will be aiming to get one over the Blues, who recently beat them to the signature of Aston Villa winger <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Morgan Rogers<\/span><\/span>.<br \/><!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <!-- newadv --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\nvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)(0);\nif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\njs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\njs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\nfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News \u00bb Premier League news \u00bb Arsenal news July 19, 2026 21:38 GMT (UK), by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}