Douglas Luiz could leave Aston Villa before end of January with Arsenal monitoring the Brazilian

Aston Villa may allow Douglas Luiz to leave Villa Park before the end of the January transfer window with Arsenal monitoring the Brazilian’s situation closely.

BirminghamWorld understands that the Gunners have been showing interest in Luiz for a while now but bids in this month at least, seemed unlikely.

However, recent reports are now suggesting that Arsenal may be prepared to test the water before January 31 due to missing out on Bruno Guimaraes.

Speaking earlier this month, Steven Gerrard seemed reluctant to state whether he’d be prepared to let the 23-year-old depart the club but did add that he wants to keep all of the clubs ‘top talent.’

“Douglas is a fantastic player, really talented and we rate him extremely high,” Gerrard explained.

“We want to keep all of our best players around.

“We understand there will be interest in our best players as well, we don’t have a problem with that.

“But yes we want to keep all of our top talent around, we see Douglas as a top talent, a really wonderful footballer on his day.

“It’s my job to try and make this team and this squad as strong, littered with top footballers - it is what it is.”

Luiz has recently found himself playing in the number six role within the Villa side due to the injury to Marvelous Nakamba and it’s a position that doesn’t seem to suit him as comfortably.

His best performances have come higher up the field and Gerrard himself simply described him as ‘doing a job at the moment.’

The scouser did go on to add that he would like to see him stay in claret & blue until the end of the season at the very least but Villa’s recent interest in Juventus midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur - if they do make that move - could change that.

Luiz has just 17 months left on his Villa contract and the manager claims that talks have not yet started over the potential of a new deal.

“No we haven’t opened contract talks yet,” Gerrard added.

“In this period and this window, it has been about trying to strengthen the current squad, make additions andalso find destinations on loan for some of our young players.

“Dougie has done okay for us. We’ve been happy with his training level and the performances that he has given.

“We believe there’s room for him to improve. He had a bit of an injury when we arrived. He’s doing us a job as a 6 at the moment.

“We know that he prefers to play a bit more advanced but he’s helped us out an awful lot on the back of Nakamba’s injury.

“We rate the player extremely high and we’re hoping from now until the end of the season, he can really perform at his bestand help the team moving forward.”

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