Arsenal want to sign Jonny Evans and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in £75m double January deal

Arsenal have moved ahead of Manchester City in the race for Jonny Evans and are said to be favourites to land the West Bromwich Albion defender and complete a double deal which includes the arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before the end of the ongoing winter transfer window.

The Gunners moved into pole position for the former Manchester United defender after Pep Guardiola's side cooled their interest after switching their focus to Athletic Bilbao's Aymeric Laporte, who is said to be close to completing a move to the Etihad Stadium.

Evans' first preference was said to be a return to Manchester, but Arsenal are now looking to complete a deal for the defender for a fee of around £20m ($28m). According to The Telegraph, the north London club are looking to complete a double deal for the West Brom defender and the Borussia Dortmund striker for a fee of around £75m.

The Gunners recently completed the swap deal which involved Alexis Sanchez joining Manchester United and Henrikh Mkhitaryan arriving at the Emirates Stadium as their second January signing - toung Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos was their first earlier in the month. The club are currently focusing on strengthening their forward line to accommodate the void left by the Chilean.

Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis along with the head of recruitment Sven Mislintat and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy are currently in Germany negotiating a deal for the Gabon international but are yet to reach an agreement.

Dortmund are said to be demanding a fee in the region £53m, but also want Olivier Giroud as part of the deal. Wenger admitted that talks are ongoing between the two clubs but refused to provide an update on the progress of the negotiations.

The French coach also indicated that Arsenal are looking at strengthening other positions in the team apart from their forward line, but confirmed they are not close to completing any deals. Evans has been an Arsenal target since last summer and the Telegraph report claims that West Brom are also keen on reaching a conclusion as they want to strengthen their squad before the end of the January transfer window.