Gunners 'will buy' £5m out-of-favour African defender

Arsenal are reportedly preparing a bid to sign Blackburn defender Chris Samba.

The Congolese international has sparked interest from a number of Premier League clubs after publicly declaring a desire to leave Ewood Park, and Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is one of the parties interested in the player.

National paper The Metro goes on to claim that the Gunners will buy the player this month, if Thomas Vermaelen fails to recover from a long-standing injury that has kept him out-of-action for the majority of the season thus far at the Emirates.