Arsenal have seen a second bid rejected for Douglas Luiz...

What's the word?

That's according to Sky Sports, who broke the news in the last few hours.

"Breaking news. Aston Villa have rejected Arsenal's improved £23million bid for midfielder Douglas Luiz," an update read on their 'Transfer Centre' and since then, journalist Kaveh Solhekol has provided further comments on the situation.

"If Aston Villa don't sell him today, Luiz can speak to other clubs from January and leave for free next summer," he said.

"Villa have said he is not for sale but the player wants to join Arsenal. However, he would like to leave the club on good terms."

Deadline day disaster

Failure to secure a new central midfielder before tonight's 11pm transfer deadline would be something of a disaster from technical director Edu Gaspar, who has certainly left it late to complete the Gunners' business this summer.

Of course, their plans have somewhat changed in the last few days after Mohamed Elneny suffered what was described as a "significant injury" by The Athletic's David Ornstein.

He was filling in for Thomas Partey, who too is injured, in Arsenal's engine room, so it leaves manager Mikel Arteta hugely light on options heading into the next few weeks and that could put their 100% win record in the top-flight in grave danger.

Particularly because they face a resurgent Manchester United side on Sunday afternoon.

Luiz would have been an ideal signing for the north London giants, given his experience in England so far and he's also a player that the Spaniard knows well from his time at Manchester City, where he was assistant manager to Pep Guardiola, who once dubbed the Brazil international as "important" and "clever."

He would also need little time to adapt to life at the Emirates Stadium as there is already a Brazilian contingent at the club and the fact that he's racked up 107 Premier League appearances is a bonus too, that included a goalscoring showing in Arsenal's win over Villa on Wednesday night, too.

As Arteta desperately needs further midfielders, failure to bring Luiz to the club could be a disastrous end to what has been a pretty solid window otherwise.

Some reports suggest that £30m would do it, which is only a £7m increase on their previous offer, so Edu and co would be foolish to give up now.

AND in other news, Late Arsenal move for £30m ace is "one to keep an eye on", he's better than Martinelli...