Squiggle

He's had a hamstring injury but he doesn't get injured much. I think his only other lengthy time away from Arsenal was when he broke a tibia in 2014 (and then he came back earlier than expected).

Warm words from Arsene Wenger explaining the transfer: “We owe him a lot,” Wenger said. “It was linked with the Aubameyang deal and he has just had a third baby so it was difficult on the family side for him to leave London. It was difficult to turn down [Chelsea’s offer] just because it is an opponent,” he added. “He was massively popular in the dressing room and the club, for all the players that left it was sad to see them go, but Olivier wanted more playing time – he wants as well to go to the World Cup. That is why I opened the door.”

Hello all, Arsenal fan here. If this goes through you'll be getting one hell of a player and someone I'll be very sorry to see leave. He wants to play in the World Cup, though, and like Cech he has a young family he doesn't want to uproot. That's fair. I'd be interested to see how he fits into Conte's plans. He or someone at Chelsea obviously wants a target man (and there've been suggestions that Giroud's strengths didn't always suit Arsenal's style of play) but he's a lot more than that. The fact that he's not the fastest runner too often leads him to being labelled as just slow but his rapid footwork has been at the centre of some of Arsenal's best team play over the past few seasons.