Unai Emery's hugely impressive work at Aston Villa since taking charge in October not only means the return of European football at Villa Park next season, but also the lure of some players that previously would have been out of the club's reach.
The Villans have already moved to bring in free agent Youri Tielemans, who is a better player than last season might suggest, while Harry Maguire and Hirving Lozano are other high-profile names potentially being eyed up.
Arthur Melo's name may not get the pulses racing quite so much, largely because of his disappointing loan spell at fellow Premier League side Liverpool last season, but it is not often Villa get the chance to sign a player with Barcelona and Juventus on their CV.
According to Italian outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport, Villa hold a concrete interest in the Brazil international, who could bring something a little different to the Villans' midfield.
Where would Juventus midfielder Arthur Melo fit in at Aston Villa?
Firstly, the elephant in the room. Arthur's Liverpool loan spell was nothing short of a disaster, having been restricted to just a solitary substitute appearance all season – in a 4-1 Champions League loss at Napoli.
That was largely down to injury problems, though there is no denying that the 26-year-old just did not fit in at Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp. But that is not to say the same would be true under Emery in the Midlands.
When using Arthur's numbers from Juventus' 2021-22 Champions League campaign, for example, he ranked in the top 1% of all players for passes attempted per 90 minutes (99.74), as per FBref, with 93.3% of those completed.
According to FBref's player comparison tool, Manchester City midfielder Rodri – the Citizens' Champions League final hero – was the player most like Arthur in terms of their statistical profile during that tournament.
Indeed, using that same European campaign, Rodri completed the same percentage of passes (93), while both players completed exactly 66.7% of their take-ons per 90 minutes.
Those similarities continue for Arthur and Rodri in terms of attacking metrics, averaging as they did that season 0.67 and 0.65 shots per 90 minutes respectively, while the latter slightly edged things in terms of shot-creating actions per 90 – 2.47 v 2.35.
As previously pointed out by Juventus head coach Massimiliano Allegri, Arthur – on £52k-a-week at the Allianz Stadium, according to Capology – possesses "extraordinary technical abilities", which clearly attracted Barcelona and then the Serie A heavyweights.
Last season's loan spell at Liverpool was undoubtedly a setback for Arthur, but he may get the chance to prove it was merely a blip should Emery and new transfer chief Monchi opt to bring him back to the Premier League.
