Defender Mosquera agrees terms with Arsenal

Mosquera has made 90 appearances for Valencia since making his debut in 2021

Valencia centre-back Cristhian Mosquera has agreed personal terms with Arsenal, with a move to the Premier League club getting closer.

BBC Sport previously reported that Arsenal were in talks to sign the 21-year-old but now another element to the deal has been completed.

The Gunners have been looking to add a young defender to their squad to compete with William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.

Mosquera can play at both centre-back and right-back and will fill the gap in the squad left by the departure of Takehiro Tomiyasu, who mutually agreed to terminate his contract.

The Spain Under-21 international has made 90 appearances for Valencia and was a regular last season, playing the full match in 37 of the club's 38 La Liga games.

Arsenal have been busy during this transfer window and have signed Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, Christian Norgaard from Brentford and Kepa Arrizabalaga from Chelsea.

The Gunners are also close to completing a deal with Sporting for striker Viktor Gyokeres and are hoping to complete a deal inside the next 24 hours for 73.5m euros (£63.5m).

A versatile defender who used to be a winger

Mosquera, who was born in Alicante but has Colombian heritage, started out as a basketball player before making the switch to futsal and joining local side San Blas Canavate, who were looking for an additional player to play in a youth tournament

He swapped his love of futsal for football in 2013, joining Alicante's biggest team Hercules, and playing as a pacey winger. He then joined Valencia's youth set-up as a 12-year-old in 2016.

Six years progressing through the club's youth ranks sparked his transformation into a defender, and he finally made his first team debut in a Copa del Rey fixture against CD Atletico Baleares in January 2022.

He can play at both centre-back and right-back and has now racked up 90 senior appearances for Valencia, scoring one goal along the way.

Arsenal already boast several of the Premier League's best one-on-one defenders, and in Mosquera they'd be signing a player who excels against opponents with the ball at their feet.

The 21-year-old won 70.7% of his ground duels in La Liga last season, far surpassing any other central defender to have contested at least 100 of them.

He also won possession an average of 5.15 times per 90 minutes, the third-highest figure in the division among players in his position.

Mosquera started 37 of Valencia's 38 La Liga matches last season

A far better option for opponents is to take the aerial route against Mosquera.

Despite being 6ft 2in, the Colombian proved as suspect in the air last season as he was imperious on the grass – his meagre success rate of 45.2% in aerial duels was the fourth-worst among central defenders who started regularly.

The move for Mosquera should give Mikel Arteta formidable strength in depth at centre-back though.

In addition to the first-choice pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel, the Gunners can also call upon Jakub Kiwior, and while Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber and Ben White have mainly featured at full-back, all three had plenty of experience in central defence before joining.

Kiwior normally provides cover for fellow left-footer Gabriel and filled in successfully when the Brazilian missed the final eight weeks of last season through injury. Mosquera is therefore initially likely to serve as dedicated back-up for Saliba as the right-sided centre-back.

But one of the advantages to recruiting Mosquera is his ability to play in either channel.

The Spaniard's breakthrough campaign was in 2023-24, when 85% of his league minutes for Valencia came as the right-sided centre-back. The following year the emergence of Cesar Tarrega meant Mosquera was often moved to the left, making 62% of his appearances there.

While Arsenal released the versatile but injury-plagued Takehiro Tomiyasu this summer, the signing of 21-year-old Mosquera should mean the Gunners have more than enough defensive options available.