Ben White would jump at the chance to join Liverpool from Arsenal should the Reds look to strengthen their defence in the January transfer window, according to Danny Murphy.
The versatile defender has been a crucial part in the Gunners’ development under Mikel Arteta but he has been reduced to a bit-part role over the course of the last 18 months.
A serious knee injury, allied to Jurrien Timber’s sensational form, has meant the England international has struggled for game time in the right-back role he had made his own.
White arrived at Arsenal as a centre-half and spent much of his early days at the north London club in that role, but competition for places at the heart of the Gunners’ defence is as intense as it has ever been, especially following the summer arrivals of Piero Hinacpie and Cristhian Mosquera.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are certain to address their defensive shortcomings if not this month then come the summer.
Get personalised updates on Arsenal everyday
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
Ibrahima Konate’s contract is due to expire and the France international looks almost certain to leave on a free transfer while the long-serving Joe Gomez is also likely to move.
The reigning champions are also yet to adequately replace Trent Alexander-Arnold with Jeremie Frimpong more suited to an attacking role and Conor Bradley struggling to maintain his fitness, even before the season ending injury he sustained last week.
White has been linked with a move to Everton in the last 24 hours and although Arsenal are unwilling to sell, Murphy believes the player might force his club’s hand were Liverpool to register interest.
He told BoyleSports: ‘Ben White to Liverpool would make sense but Arsenal might not want to sell to a rival.
‘It would depend on how adamant the player is that he wants to go. If Ben White was an option, I think that would be a good option for Liverpool.
‘I think he’s a really good footballer, he’s a big lad. Yes, he’s had a couple of injury problems recently, but he’s an experienced guy, he’s played a lot of games and he can play centre-back and right-back.
‘The obvious good thing for Liverpool would be in that negotiation, if that was something that was to materialise, would be that any player would rather go to Liverpool than Everton, I’m not saying that because I’m a Red, I’m saying that because Liverpool are competing for the Champions League, you know, still in the top four, still in the FA Cup.
‘Whereas Everton are obviously out of the FA Cup, they’re not competing for European competitions.
‘I wouldn’t see why if Liverpool were keen, then why he wouldn’t try and force that move, having said that I’d find it strange to think that Arsenal would let him go. Or they might just think they’re too far ahead of Liverpool anyway, so we’ll have to see how that plays out.’
Arteta, meanwhile, said it is his ‘mission’ to knock Chelsea out of the Carabao Cup and deliver Arsenal’s first major trophy in almost six years after last season’s “painful” semi-final exit.
Arteta could be missing four defenders for the opening-leg clash at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Riccardo Calafiori, Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera are all certainly out, while there are significant doubts over William Saliba’s fitness.
Arsenal failed to progress to the final of the Carabao Cup last year following an emphatic 4-0 aggregate defeat by Newcastle.
They were also knocked out of the semi-finals of the Champions League and fell short in the title race too. Arteta’s sole silverware as Arsenal manager so far remains the 2020 FA Cup.
However, they head into Wednesday’s first leg still fighting on all four fronts. The Gunners are top of both the Premier League and Champions League, and through to the fourth round of the FA Cup following their 4-1 win at Portsmouth on Sunday.
And Arteta said: ‘Football gives you another chance. We have been really consistent again in this competition and now we have to knock another big team out to be in the final. That is the mission.
‘Hopefully we have learned from last year because it was painful, especially in the manner that the games went, and the amount of chances we missed to go through. So this year we want to be better and more efficient.
‘When you get to this stage in the competition, you get to the final, and you get it over the line and win it, it brings a different kind of energy.
‘It brings belief and the sense that the objective is very, very close and that is a massive motivation for everybody.’
The absences of Calafiori, Hincapie, Mosquera and potentially Saliba on Wednesday could force Arteta to play a makeshift back four at Stamford Bridge with Christian Norgaard on call to play alongside Gabriel at centre-half.
Leandro Trossard, who has scored seven times this season, is another who may not be fit enough to play.
