Arsenal sporting director Edu is leading the race to sign Youri Tielemans.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report from Spain (via Sport Witness), which claims that, despite Barcelona already being in talks with the Leicester City midfielder regarding a move to Camp Nou on a free transfer next summer, it is Arsenal who are currently leading the race to sign the 25-year-old.

The report goes on to state that conversations between Edu and the Belgium international began several months ago and "everything seems to be on track" for the playmaker to join the Gunners, with the north London side even said to be willing to pay a fee to the Foxes in order to close the deal this winter.

Arteta's biggest issue

Considering just how impressive Tielemans has been ever since his £40m permanent move to Leicester back in the summer of 2019, coupled with central midfield undoubtedly being a problem area of Mikel Arteta's squad in terms of squad depth, it is easy to see why Edu would be interested in a deal to bring the Belgian to The Emirates this winter.

Indeed, over his 173 appearances for the Foxes, the £44m-rated talent has been a near-continuous source of creativity and goals from the heart of midfield, hitting the back of the net on 27 separate occasions and providing his teammates with a further 25 assists.

And, despite his side's struggles in the league, the £35k-per-week playmaker has particularly impressed over his 14 appearances this season, scoring three goals, registering one assist and creating five big chances, as well as taking an average of one shot - 0.5 of which have been on target - and making 1.3 key passes per game.

The 54-cap international has also impressed in metrics more typical of his position, completing an average of 49.4 passes - at a success rate of 87% - playing 2.6 long balls, winning 2.1 tackles, making 0.8 interceptions and winning 4.1 duels - at a success rate of 59% - per fixture.

These returns have seen the 25-year-old who Jack Johnson dubbed "unreal" average a simply sensational SofaScore match rating of 7.25, not only ranking him as Leicester's second-best performer in the league but also as the joint 24th-best player in the Premier League as a whole in the current campaign.

As such, it is evident that Tielemans would represent something of a perfect addition to the likes of Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka - both of whom the Belgian is currently outperforming - in the heart of the Arsenal side, leading us to believe that the midfielder's signing would not only solve Arteta's biggest issue this winter, but it might just win them the league.