Cazorla could have Arsenal medical this week

According to a report from Sky Sports, the deal between Arsenal and Malaga for winger/midfielder Santi Cazorla is close enough to being completed that the player will travel to London this week for a medical examination in preparation for the move's finalization.

Sky appear to be the only major news outlet reporting this at the moment, and none of the sources that we've been sticking with thus far in this great voyage have reported it yet, so there's a chance that they're wrong. On the other hand, Sky are usually late on things, so maybe this has already happened and Cazorla is being photographed in red and white as we speak.

Cazorla should be in England "within the next 48 hours" for the medical, according to Sky, and with personal terms between the player and Arsenal already agreed, it would seem that only the formality of actually officially agreeing to a fee with Malaga stands between Arsene Wenger and a player that he's coveted at least since last summer, when before moving to Malaga from Villareal, he was Plan A to Juan Mata's Plan B. Obviously neither worked out, but it appears the manager will get his man this time.

According to the report, the deal as it stands presently is for €22million (£17.3million), which is around (but not quite) the same amount Spanish paper AS reported yesterday that Arsenal were offering. If Cazorla has the rumored medical and passes, and Malaga agree to that bid soon, Cazorla could be official this week - though knowing how Arsenal work, that's probably unlikely.

It's usually our policy to stay conservative on transfers, but as you can see it's hard on this one. With the player wanting to move here, the club wanting him, and Malaga looking more and more every day like they have to sell, it looks very much like it should happen, barring some kind of late crisis. Again, knowing Arsenal, that's always a possibility, so still wait on getting any Cazorla tattoos. But it might be nearly time to start getting excited. Sky haven't taken the story down yet, after all.