Arsenal Tipped to Trigger David Luiz Contract Extension

Arsenal are ready to trigger a one-year contract extension option in David Luiz's contract, according to one report.

The 32-year-old Brazilian defender joined Arsenal from Chelsea for a fee of around £8m last summer​, appearing in 25 of the Gunners' 28 Premier League games prior to the pandemic-enforced hiatus.

While ​Arsenal have struggled this season, sitting ninth in the league table with fewer wins than Southampton and Burnley, Mikel Arteta has been impressed by Luiz, according to ​The Sun.

The centre back has been a key figure since Arteta took over as first-team manager, while the Gunners are unbeaten in the Premier League this year.

The report, which is scant on information, claims that the extension clause will keep Luiz at the Emirates Stadium until 2021, though many outlets (including ​Transfermarkt.com) already list this as the defender's contract completion year.

Regardless, no defender has played more Premier League minutes than Luiz for Arsenal in 2019/20, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the only outfield player to feature more often. No Gunners player has made more clearances or blocked more shots than Luiz this season.

Fixing Arsenal's defence remains Arteta's key challenge. The Gunners have conceded 36 times in 28 games this season and have kept just seven clean sheets.

Centre back is likely to be an area in which Arsenal strengthen in the summer window, while the club will also welcome the arrival of talented teenager William Saliba.

In other news, Luiz has spoken of the difficulty of moving from ​Chelsea to rivals Arsenal this summer, claiming that some at his old club pleaded with him to return.

Luiz told OTRO: "I can be honest with you, the first three days or week was not easy to understand all the emotions or how I was feeling, because everybody knows my history with Chelsea.

"I had this connection with everyone at the club. It was so massive and big and I was missing every single one.

"Every text message I was receiving, people were saying, 'Come back, come back, come back, come back, we are here for you'.

"I give you the example of a gentleman there who is 75 years old. He was taking breakfast with me at the time when he had the opportunity.

"He was texting me, 'I am still waiting for you here to take the breakfast again'".