Arsenal legend identifies midfield battler as bargain of the season

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Arsenal great Thierry Henry has identified Leicester City midfielder N’golo Kante as the best bargain signing of the season so far.

The former Gunners hitman, writing in his column for The Sun, has extolled the virtues of the box-to-box operator, who was brought to the King Power Stadium from Stade Malherbe Caen in the summer.

“No deal this month will prove to be better value for money than Leicester’s inspired summer signing of N’Golo Kante.

“The French midfielder has been the unsung hero behind his team’s shock title challenge and an absolute bargain at £5.6million from Caen.

“Yet, no disrespect to Leicester, the reason Kante has been such a success is because he signed for one of the League’s ‘lesser’ teams without the burden of a huge transfer fee.

“People are now asking why Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool all failed to identify Kante when they were looking for a holding midfield player in the summer.”

Henry’s former club Arsenal are just one club who could well have done with the powerful Frenchman. The north London heavyweights have been accused of never truly replacing Patrick Vieira following the legendary star’s transfer to Juventus.

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This season, Francis Coquelin has continued to demonstrate that he has the qualities to be the authoritative midfielder Arsenal need, having impressed since being recalled from his loan deal at Charlton Athletic last term.

However, the Frenchman is currently injured and, without him, the Gunners lack a natural replacement in the heart of the midfield, with both Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta representing problematic options.

Kante, who has averaged a remarkable 4 tackles per match and 4.1 interceptions per match, could represent an ideal option for the Emirates Stadium side.

 

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