Arsenal to hijack Spurs move for Eberechi Eze in latest Daniel Levy transfer humiliation

Spurs looked set to sign the attacking midfielder for around £60m on Wednesday, but Arsenal moved quickly to get ahead of their rivals after German forward Havertz suffered an injury.

It is understood the 27-year-old prefers a move to Arsenal, having previously played for and been a boyhood fan of the club.

Havertz came on in the second half of Sunday’s victory over Manchester United and completed the game but was absent from Arsenal’s open training at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

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Eze, whose £68million release clause expired on Friday, played 84 minutes of the weekend draw at Chelsea and trained on Wednesday ahead of Palace’s Conference League play-off at home to Fredrikstad, with head coach Oliver Glasner insisting he and captain Marc Guehi, a target for Liverpool, would start the European tie.

“Before Chelsea I think many of you were surprised that Marc and Ebs started and played almost the whole game,” he said.

“Most of you will be surprised that they will start again tomorrow because of all the rumours. But again, they are committed.”

Eze was released by Arsenal as a 13-year-old.

This marks just the latest in a slew of transfer humiliations for Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.

Last month the club looked set to sign Nottingham Forest star Morgan-Gibbs White after activating his release clause.

However, the English midfielder u-turned on his decision to join the club, signing a new contract with Forest instead.