At A Glance:
- Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are hoping to end their trophy drought in 2025/26.
- Defensively, they’ve been the best in the Premier League.
- Inter Milan are eyeing a move for one of their defenders.
Arsenal will be hoping to reach this season’s end with more than one piece of silverware in their trophy cabinet and, as a result, plenty of their players will be attracting interest from clubs elsewhere.
Mikel Arteta’s men – who, at the time of writing, have a nine-point buffer on Manchester City in the Premier League – fluffed their chance in the Carabao Cup final recently but will be hungrier than ever.
Still in with a chance of conquering three competitions, the Gunners return to action on the weekend to face Southampton in the FA Cup.
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Their prospective success aside, it is expected to be a busy summer inside the four walls of the Emirates Stadiums with many incomings and outgoings set to be sanctioned. But Arsenal are keen to hold on to one star.
Arsenal expected to rebuff Inter Milan interest in star
Earlier this month, it was reported that a total of eight Arsenal stars were at risk of being sold because of the club’s hefty spending last summer. Martin Odegaard, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ben White were named.
Not on that list was Riccardo Calafiori, however, given how important he had become to Arteta’s trophy-winning plans.
That hasn’t prevented Inter Milan from reportedly getting in contact with the Italian’s agent, Alessandro Lucci, over a potential deal this summer.
According to Fabio Constantino of FC Inter News, Cristian Chivu and his staff are eyeing a move for the 23-year-old as they look for a potential replacement for Barcelona-linked Alessandro Bastoni.
A move would be far from straightforward, though, as Arsenal are expected to rebuff any attempt to lure Riccardo Calafiori away from north London.
Even if Arsenal’s stance was to change, his transfer fee and salary would be a hefty financial commitment for Inter it has been noted.
The former Bologna hotshot, who turned down Chelsea to move to the Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2024, has established himself as a regular under Arteta and they’ve issued a ‘hands-off’ warning this summer.
Although returning to his homeland of Italy is not off the cards in the future, both Arsenal and Calafiori are focused on task at hands: winning trophies in England.
Is Riccardo Calafiori indispensable to Arteta?
Having battled with his fair share of injury concerns in his maiden season in England, Calafiori is now Arteta’s first-choice in the left-back – and his combination of defensive nous and attacking prowess is admired.
Manchester United-linked Lewis-Skelly has fallen down the pecking order on the back of the Italian’s rise to prominence and Piero Hincapie is also behind him.
With Arsenal conceding just 22 league goals at the time of writing, it’s clear that Calafiori has contributed tremendously to their defensive endeavours – and, as a result, selling him would be poor business.
| Statistic | Calafiori | Hincapie | Lewis-Skelly |
| Minutes | 1458 | 1504 | 313 |
| Goals/Assists | 1/2 | 1/2 | 0/0 |
| Pass success rate (%) | 85.4 | 89.2 | 88.6 |
| Tackles per 90 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 0.3 |
| Interceptions per 90 | 0.6 | 1 | 0.1 |
| Aerials won per 90 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.1 |
| Overall rating | 6.83 | 6.84 | 6.17 |
All in all, he’s played 58 times for Arsenal since his move from Bologna nearly two years ago but that number is expected to rise exponentially over the coming years.
Born in Rome, it would be wrong to say that Riccardo Calafiori is indispensable to Arteta but he’s not far off. He’s aerially dominant, confident on the ball and is perfect for the type of football Arteta tends to implement.
