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Arsenal Premier League • England Julian Alvarez reaches decision on record-breaking Arsenal move after brutal Atletico Madrid treatment Arsenal look to have been handed a significant boost to their hopes of securing a record-breaking deal to sign Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez, according to fresh reports in Spain, with the atmosphere at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium starting to turn toxic towards the player. The north London outfit have a long-standing interest in the Argentina international, who has been heavily tipped to head to The Emirates this summer as Mikel Arteta looks to take the Gunners up another level after their Premier League triumph last season. Arsenal splashed out £64million on Viktor Gyokeres last summer and, despite the Swede notching 21 times during his maiden campaign, the opportunity to bring Alvarez to the club is too good to pass up. The 26-year-old scored 49 goals during his first two seasons with Atletico, having previously won back-to-back Premier Leagues during his time in England at Manchester City. Arsenal expressed interest in signing Alvarez at the start of the summer, only for the LaLiga outfit to reject their advances, alongside that of an ambitious £130m bid from bitter rivals Real Madrid. While the player himself has always favoured a move to Barcelona, the Catalan giants also feel short with their own approach for a player who has a whopping £431m release clause. Indeed, Atletico president Enrique Cerezo explained why Barca, who have had financial constraints for a number of windows now, fell short in their pursuit of the Argentine. Speaking via Fabrizio Romano, he said: “What I consider is that Barcelona wasn’t up to the circumstances and didn’t do what is normally done in this kind of situation.” DON’T MISS: Arsenal stance on Martinelli sale clear as Italian trio consider late window raids to tempt Arteta Arsenal given hope over stunning Alvarez swoop However, the landscape has started to turn when it comes to Alvarez’s immediate future, with just over a week to go in the summer window. With the striker making it clear that he is seeking an exit, Atletico feel the current situation cannot continue and are reportedly ready to negotiate a sale, although not to a LaLiga rival. The key stumbling block to any Arsenal swoop was Alvarez’s strong desire to join Barca, but Spanish outlet AS now states that the forward has softened his stance and is no longer ‘completely ruling out’ a move to north London. Alvarez was heavily jeered when he came on as a second-half substitute in Atletico’s 2-2 draw with Villarreal on Sunday. Indeed, at one point the supporters were chanting: “Tell him to leave, let him leave forever.” After the game, Alvarez headed straight down the tunnel to even more boos as his Atletico teammates applauded the fans, with Diego Simeone later claiming that was the club’s decision. Speaking before the game, the Atletico boss was bullish over his support for Alvarez, saying: “For me, Julian is an extremely important player for us to achieve our objectives. As long as he’s with the team, I’m going to look after him.” However, the hostile atmosphere may have now swayed that opinion and given Arsenal a major boost in the process, alongside Alvarez’s own U-turn on heading back to England. If a move does accelerate before the window closes on September 1, however, the Gunners will almost certainly need to smash their current transfer record, the £105m they spent on Declan Rice. Meanwhile, Juventus boss Luciano Spalletti has provided an update on another Arsenal target, Kenan Yildiz, with the Gunners reported to be ‘in love’ with the Serie A superstar, as per Romano.