Arsenal move step closer to Aubameyang deal as Chelsea agree £18m fee for Olivier Giroud

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is at Arsenal this afternoon, waiting for clearance from Borussia Dortmund to complete his £55m transfer. But the move will only be completed once his new club complete a deal to sell Olivier Giroud to Chelsea for £18m.

The Aubameyang deal has all been agreed, the player flew into London this morning and arrived at Arsenal’s training ground at London Colney. Arsenal are just waiting on the formality of the medical. But Dortmund will not release Aubameyang until they have a replacement: Michy Batshuayi from Chelsea, who has agreed to head to Germany on loan.

Batshuayi has struggled to win Antonio Conte’s trust at Chelsea but has an opportunity to be first-choice striker at a big club at Dortmund, just five months before the World Cup.

But if Chelsea are to lose Batshuayi, their man back-up to Alvaro Morata, they need a replacement. Having spent all month looking at various options, they have landed on Olivier Giroud, who has fallen out of favour at Arsenal and only started one Premier League game this season. Giroud, like Batshuayi, is keen to leave this month in pursuit of first team football to secure a World Cup place. There has been interest from Besiktas, Marseille and Everton in the past, and Arsenal tried to throw him into the Aubameyang deal too. But his preference is to stay in London, so Arsenal and Chelsea have been negotiating a fee for Giroud, with agreement close at £18m (€20m).

Arsenal need the deal to go ahead which means they have an interest in letting the French veteran leave at a cut price, information which Chelsea have used to get their man for as little as possible. Once the transfer across London is completed then the Batshuayi and Aubameyang deals will be completed.