Arsenal urged to ditch Maddison pursuit for his team-mate

Former Arsenal striker Kevin Campbell has told the Gunners to buy Youri Tielemans from Leicester City over his team-mate James Maddison.

Arsenal have been linked with Maddison for a long time but a report on Sunday claimed that both the Gunners and their arch-rivals Tottenham were ready to battle it out for the England international this summer.

Maddison is currently enjoying his best goalscoring season since joining Leicester with 13 goals in all competitions, while he has also contributed eight assists.

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However, with Martin Odegaard showing some top form for the north London club this term, Campbell reckons Arsenal could move for Maddison’s team-mate Tielemans instead.

Campbell told Football Insider: “I think Youri Tielemans is the one they will be looking at.

“I could be wrong on that but I think the ship has sailed with Maddison. We have Odegaard now so spending another £50 million on an attacking midfielder, I just don’t see it.

“Tielemans is a player Arsenal need. He has a different game to Maddison.

“I’m sure Arteta will see him as our type of player. For me, Tielemans is the one and I hope we can get that deal done in the summer.”

Meanwhile, Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale says their performance in a 2-1 loss to Brighton at the weekend was “not good enough”.

Ramsdale told Arsenal’s official website: “This was supposed to be the reaction game but it wasn’t. We’ve lost and not managed to pick up any points and next week is even bigger.

“I think we just need to go out there and be free and play our game, you know?

“It’s a game of football and I think in the first half we were very tense and slow so we just need to go out there next week, trust what the manager and the coaching staff are saying and go and play our football, which we’ve done all season.

“It’s not good enough. Two games on the spin where the first 45 minutes has got away from us. You make it an uphill battle against any team in the Premier League if you’re losing at half-time.”