Premier League leaders Arsenal have completed a £12 million deal to sign Jorginho from Chelsea on transfer deadline day.
The Gunners targeted the 31-year-old Italy midfielder after Brighton rejected two bids for Moises Caicedo, with the Ecuadorean set to stay at the south coast club.
Manager Mikel Arteta had been looking to strengthen his midfield options after Mohamed Elneny picked up a knee injury in training before Arsenal’s North London derby win over Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month.
“We need some more cover in midfield ideally if we can,” the Spaniard said last week. “In this market it’s pretty complicated to do that.”
Chelsea are willing to let Jorginho go as they pursue their own interest in a potentially British transfer record-breaking deal for Benfica’s Enzo Fernandez.
Jorginho joined Chelsea from Serie A side Napoli in 2018 and is in the final six months of his Stamford Bridge contract. He made 213 appearances for the club, scoring 29 goals, winning the Champions League, Europa League, Uefa Super Cup and Fifa Club World Cup along the way.
The midfielder was born in Brazil but moved to Italy at the age of 15 and opted to play for the Azzurri at international level.
Biggest deals of transfer window
Arsenal and Arteta tried to sign Jorginho in the summer of 2020, a year before the he won the Champions League with the Blues and the European Championships with Italy.
Arteta was also the assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City when they tried to sign him in 2018 – but Jorginho turned down the move and joined Chelsea, then managed by his countryman Maurizio Sarri.
He is set to become Arsenal's third signing of the January window, the club having already signed Poland defender Jakub Kiwior from Spezia for £17.6m and Belgium striker Leandro Trossard, who moved from Brighton for £21m.
Arsenal are currently five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table with a game in hand on Guradiola's side. They have won 16 out of 19 games, losing just once, and are through to the last-16 of the Europa League having finished top of their group.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Mubalada World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule
Thursday December 27
Men's quarter-finals
Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm
Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm
Women's exhibition
Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm
Friday December 28
5th place play-off 3pm
Men's semi-finals
Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm
Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm
Saturday December 29
3rd place play-off 5pm
Men's final 7pm
RESULTS - ELITE MEN
1. Henri Schoeman (RSA) 57:03
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 57:09
3. Vincent Luis (FRA) 57:25
4. Leo Bergere (FRA)57:34
5. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 57:40
6. Joao Silva (POR) 57:45
7. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 57:56
8. Adrien Briffod (SUI) 57:57
9. Gustav Iden (NOR) 57:58
10. Richard Murray (RSA) 57:59
TCL INFO
Teams:
Punjabi Legends Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan
Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
Timeline October 25: Around 120 players to be entered into a draft, to be held in Dubai; December 21: Matches start; December 24: Finals
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Pari
Produced by: Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma, Karnesh Sharma) & KriArj Entertainment
Director: Prosit Roy
Starring: Anushka Sharma, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Ritabhari Chakraborty, Rajat Kapoor, Mansi Multani
Three stars
Squads
India: Kohli (c), Rahul, Shaw, Agarwal, Pujara, Rahane, Vihari, Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Shami, Umesh, Siraj, Thakur
West Indies: Holder (c), Ambris, Bishoo, Brathwaite, Chase, Dowrich (wk), Gabriel, Hamilton, Hetmyer, Hope, Lewis, Paul, Powell, Roach, Warrican, Joseph
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE v Ireland
1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets
2nd ODI, January 12
3rd ODI, January 14
4th ODI, January 16
