Arsenal Transfers: 7 January Targets for Arsene Wenger

Arsenal took a major step in recovering from their disastrous start to the season on Saturday, when they beat Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge.

The thrilling victory was the Gunners' eighth in their last nine games, with the manner of the result and the calibre of the opposition surely enough to rid them of the 'crisis club' tag.

However, it is clear that Arsene Wenger still has plenty of work to do if he is to turn his team into bona fide contenders for the major honours.

To that end, he should act in the January transfer window, and here are seven players he could sign to help his cause.

Kolo Toure

City certainly have a penchant for poaching players from Arsenal. Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri have all swapped the Emirates for the Etihad in recent years, though the Gunners were of course well compensated, to the tune of more than £70 million.

Toure, however, has seen his career stall following his failure of a drug test. While he was merely guilty of taking his wife's slimming tablets, he was still handed a lengthy ban, which he has only recently finished serving.

Now the club is seeking to punish him further by denying him the windfall from his image rights, some £1.5 million. The row could result in Toure, who has seen City rise to the top of the Premier League table with Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott anchoring the defence, seeking to leave the club.

If that were to happen, then a cut-price return to Arsenal would not be the worst move for either party.

Toure could return to a club he knows inside and out from his seven years there, which included a key role in the 'Invincibles' side of 2003/04.

Wenger would regain the use of a player he knows would provide competition for places at the back, with Per Mertesacker still not impressing since his summer move, and the Ivorian could also play in midfield when necessary, the position he played in at the beginning of his Arsenal career.

Marouane Fellaini

For all the undoubted creativity that the Arsenal midfield boasts, all too often that comes at the expense of solidity in the centre of the park.

With Abou Diaby injured and Emmanuel Frimpong still very much a work in progress, Alex Song is the only defensively-minded midfielder currently at Wenger's disposal. 

Everton's Fellaini would fit the bill perfectly for Wenger: he is still only 23, is a dominant aerial presence with his 6-foot-4 frame and is gifted with the ball at his feet too.

The young Belgian is currently in talks over a new contract at Everton, with the Toffees keen to tie him down before the January transfer window opens. They are willing to make him the club's highest-paid player to do so.

However, if Fellaini does not sign before the year is out, Arsenal could steal in and make Everton an offer that the cash-strapped club would not be able to refuse.

Mario Goetze

This is probably not the first time you will have read this particular transfer rumour. Goetze's name was linked with a move to Arsenal on a daily basis during the summer, despite the his current club, Borussia Dortmund, insisting they would not entertain any offer for their prodigiously talented teenager.

However, the story just refuses to go away, with many pointing to Dortmund's struggles in the Champions League and Bayern Munich's dominant start to the Bundesliga campaign as signs that the 19-year-old may be tempted to move on if the opportunity comes up.

The reigning German champions will not be willing to sell, but the prospect of netting a huge transfer fee for a player that cost them nothing may be too much to resist in the January transfer window. 

Yann M'Vila

Another holding midfielder who would greatly enhance Arsenal's defensive efforts is Rennes starlet M'Vila. The 21-year-old has already been capped 15 times by France since last summer's World Cup, having played at every level of youth football for Les Bleus.

Perhaps the international performance which saw him rise to the attention of those outside France was in the 2-0 friendly win over England at Wembley last November, when he was part of a French midfield that gave the hosts a bit of a lesson in how to recover from a disappointing tournament campaign.

Arsenal could expect to pay as much as £15 million for the player who joined Rennes as a 15-year-old, but if there is one manager who would find it difficult to resist signing a talented young Frenchman, it's Wenger.

Esteban Granero

Wenger has already brought in one Spanish midfielder this season in the form of Mikel Arteta, who arrived from Everton on deadline day and has settled very quickly into the team.

However, the Arsenal boss already has his eye on another player from the Iberian peninsula in Granero. 
The Real Madrid youth product has never been able to fully make an impact at the Bernabeu following his promotion to the star-studded senior squad, and has made just two appearances in La Liga for Los Merengues.

Nevertheless, the former Spain Under-21 possesses the kind of technical ability we have all come to take for granted from Spanish players, and would appear to have all the tools necessary to do a decent job at Arsenal. 

According to the Daily Mirror, Granero could be available for as little as £7 million.

Stevan Jovetic

The young Montenegro forward has returned from the injury which ruled him out for the whole of last season with a bang.

This term, the 21-year-old has already scored five goals in nine Serie A appearances for Fiorentina, and is inevitably being linked with a move away from the Tuscan club.

La Viola only locked him down to a new contract a few weeks ago, but if Arsenal are serious about getting their target before the host of other top clubs who are interested in him do, they may be forced into paying top dollar for one of European football's most exciting young talents.

That price could be as much as £20 million, according to the Daily Mail.

Angel Rangel

There is a lot more to the Swansea City right-back than just an amusing rhyming couplet of a name, you know.

The Catalan defender joined the Swans in 2007, and immediately became a permanent fixture in the side as they won promotion to the Championship in his very first year in British football.  

Throughout their consolidation in the Championship and their promotion from it last season via the playoffs, Rangel has been a virtual ever-present, and he continues to be so as the Welsh club have made a decent start to life in the Premier League.

Typically of both his Spanish roots and Swansea's style of play, Rangel is an accomplished footballer and an excellent passer of the ball, often pushing up the flank and contributing to the attack.

Bacary Sagna's recent injury, which has made him a long-term absentee from the Arsenal side, has exposed the Gunners' limitations at right-back, with both Johan Djourou and Carl Jenkinson unconvincing deputies.

If Wenger wants to strengthen in that area, then Rangel could be his man.