Tottenham Hotspur were edging closer to signing Eze, but Arsenal surged ahead and wrapped up a deal with Crystal Palace for the England international. Eze is expected to officially join this weekend,

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank hailed his side's defensive improvement just three games into his reign after comfortably keeping Manchester City at bay to win 2-0 at the Etihad on Saturday.

However, the deal is not done yet after Tottenham entered the race. There has now been a fascinating development involving Bilal El Khannouss, after Leicester opted to leave the African attacker out of the squad for Saturday’s Championship clash against Charlton.

Arsenal welcome Leeds United to the Emirates this evening for their first home Premier League clash of the season. Both sides began the new campaign with a win last weekend, with the Gunners securing a narrow 1-0 victory at Manchester United.

There are two possible responses: optimistic and pessimistic, although there is also scope for readers to leave comments afterwards. Arsenal fans were the seventh-most hopeful (84 per cent optimistic, 16 per cent pessimistic), while Leeds United supporters were the 13th-most (67 per cent optimistic, 33 per cent pessimistic).

Eberechi Eze is close to joining Tottenham after Arsenal backed out of the race. The England international is expected to start for Crystal Palace in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League play-off against Fredrikstad on Thursday before sealing a £60m move to Spurs.

Arsenal players such as Noni Madueke and Gabriel Magalhaes were among those to react to a update regarding their pursuit of Eberechi Eze

There is precedent for Arsenal pipping north London rivals Tottenham to a transfer target's signature at the 11th hour as they look to pull off a £68million coup for Eberechi Eze