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The north London club are considering making a second offer for England international Watkins after seeing their opening £60m bid rejected by Aston Villa.
Arsenal are believed to have made the bid at the start of the week but the news only broke on Wednesday evening, just hours before Aston Villa’s Champions League clash against Celtic.
Mikel Arteta is desperate to sign a new striker before the transfer deadline as he looks to fire Arsenal to Premier League – and perhaps even European – glory in the second-half of the season.
Watkins, one of the most consistent goalkeepers in the Premier League over the past three seasons, would certainly be an upgrade on Kai Havertz, while Gabriel Jesus will miss the rest of the campaign through injury.
Petit insists Watkins would do perfectly well at the Emirates Stadium but believes Arsenal are only pursuing the 29-year-old out of ‘panic’ at the back-end of the transfer window.
Arsenal were linked with a number of other strikers earlier in the month and Petit reckons his former club would ‘prefer’ to sign Alexander Isak or Victor Osimhen.
The Gunners expressed interest in signing Isak – who has scored 18 goals in his last 18 games – but have been put off by Newcastle United’s stunning valuation which stands at over £100m.
Osimhen, meanwhile, has been repeatedly linked with a move to the Premier League over the past 18 months and almost joined Arsenal’s London rivals Chelsea last summer.
‘The potential signing of Ollie Watkins to Arsenal feels like a bit of a panic buy,’ Petit, speaking at the new Sports Betting Lounge at Grosvenor Casino Luton, told Metro.
‘He wasn’t the first-choice target, but with the January transfer window nearing its end, Arsenal have had to act.
‘I’m fairly certain Arsenal would have preferred a different …
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