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Aston Villa 'leapfrog Arsenal in Emiliano Buendia race'

Aston Villa 'leapfrog Arsenal in Emiliano Buendia race'
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Emiliano Buendia is close to leaving Norwich after their promotion.

Aston Villa are winning the race for Norwich star Emi Buendia.

The forward is close to a club-record move to Villa Park, in a massive blow to Arsenal, the PA news agency understands.

The Gunners and Villa made offers of around £30million this week and the Canaries are deciding what is best.

But PA has been told Villa have put together an impressive offer for Buendia and they are now favourites to sign him.

Any deal will surpass the record £28million which bought Ollie Watkins from Brentford last summer.

Arsenal do at least remain in the hunt and are long-time admirers, having made their interest clear during last summer's restart following the enforced coronavirus break.

But Villa have extensively scouted the 24-year-old and watched several of his final games this season.

Buendia helped Norwich win their second Sky Bet Championship title in the last three seasons when they returned to the Premier League at the first attempt this year.

He scored 15 goals and made 16 assists to earn his first call-up to the Argentina squad for this month's World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Colombia.

Buendia has been happy in Norfolk after joining from Getafe in 2018, recognising the chance the Canaries have given him, but has always had desire to play at a higher level.

"One always dreams of being at the highest level and in the best teams in England, Spain or Europe," Buendia told AS last month.

"One dreams of playing for titles, it is an ambition that I have, it is a pride that important clubs are interested in you, it means that you are doing things well and it is a motivation to continue working and one day achieve it."

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1Liverpool15113131131836
2Chelsea1594235181731
3Arsenal1686229151430
4Manchester CityMan City158342721627
5Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest157441918125
6Aston Villa157442323025
7Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton156632522324
8Bournemouth157352320324
9Fulham166642422224
10Brentford157263128323
11Newcastle UnitedNewcastle166552321223
12Tottenham HotspurSpurs1562731191220
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd155461918119
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham155372028-818
15Everton153661421-715
16Leicester CityLeicester163582134-1314
17Crystal Palace152761420-613
18Ipswich TownIpswich162681628-1212
19Wolverhampton WanderersWolves1623112440-169
20Southampton1512121131-205


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