CHRIS HATHERALL: More Aston Villa than David Villa

Arsene Wenger needs only one piece of advice going into transfer deadline day judging by his team’s Jekyll and Hyde performance against Liverpool: forget about David Villa and concentrate on signing a centre-back instead of a centre-forward.

Arsenal’s rather half-hearted chase for the Barcelona striker looks doomed to fail after Wenger admitted the Spanish giants have no interest in selling.

But having seen Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott link up so well in a dramatic comeback for the Gunners against Steven Gerrard and Co it’s hard to understand why Wenger is investing so much time look for attacking players when his defence is such a disaster.