Arsenal Plan £15m Move for Real Madrid Striker Alvaro Morata - Report

Arsenal are planning a bid for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata in the summer, according to the Daily Mail.

The Gunners were heavily linked with a loan move for the striker last January, but Madrid blocked the move leaving Arsenal to ponder over a concrete bid in the summer to secure his services.

The 21-year-old is reportedly frustrated with his lack of opportunities with the Spanish giants and is willing to make the move abroad to gain more game time.

Manager Arsene Wenger has made a striker his top priority this summer, with Olivier Giroud and Yaya Sanogo failing to make a mark in the latter half of the season.

Madrid are likely to demand £15m for his services with a buy-back clause, something which Wenger is willing to negotiate on. The Gunners are also looking at other options, with the likes of Diego Costa and Julian Draxler being key targets in the summer.

Meanwhile, Arsenal have suffered a major setback in their race for the title, losing to Stoke City at the Britannia and thus dropping to third spot, behind Chelsea and Liverpool.

The north London club were below their best against a physical Stoke side who dug into the Gunners and made it difficult for them to play their free flowing football.

A contentious penalty late into the second half awarded to Stoke City for a handball by Laurent Koscielny ended a sorry evening for Wenger's men. The managed berated the referee for his performance and quipped that the penalty was a gift for the host team.

"I felt we had a good defensive performance and overall we are unlucky to lose this game. Offensively we didn't create enough and our offensive game was poor considering our standards. At the end of the day we didn't score because of that. We conceded a goal that was a nice gift from the referee but it can happen," Wenger told www.arsenal.com.