Ligue 1 giants Marseille will likely have to sell key players in January, and one star could be of interest to Arsenal in their search for a new left-winger.

The French heavyweights have been mired in financial difficulties for a while. When Frank McCourt took over the club in 2016, the aim was to build a team capable of challenging PSG at the summit of Ligue 1.

Over time, it became clear that achieving these grand designs requires an awful lot of money. To be fair to McCourt, he did pump resources into Marseille. However, like many French clubs, OM have been hit hard by Ligue 1's struggles to secure lucrative broadcasting deals.

The situation has left them flying close to the sun in recent years. In order to be able to keep up their ambitious spending, qualifying for the Champions League became non-negotiable, so when they missed out last season, it had disastrous ramifications.

With McCourt no longer willing to prop up the club's accounts, French football's financial watchdog, the DNCG, forced Marseille to cut costs in the summer. No new players joined, other than three stars who had already been on loan, while several key performers had to be sold.

Marseille need January sales

The consequences appeared to be massive. Marseille endured a horrific start to the season and looked on course for a relegation battle - an unthinkable situation for one of France's biggest clubs to find themselves in.

For now, though, disaster seems to have been averted. OM have been on an almost miraculous run of form in recent weeks, winning five Ligue 1 matches on the bounce and surging up to fourth in the table.

However, L'Equipe reports that more sacrifices will have to be made in January. Despite a summer fire sale, the wage bill still needs to be trimmed further in order to comply with the demands of the DNCG.

There isn't just one way to go about this. Reducing salaries and deferring bonus payments is perhaps the least painful method of cutting costs, but this would require full buy-in from players and club staff, which may prove difficult to secure.

The quickest and easiest way of raising funds is by selling big earners or the club's most valuable assets, such as winger Igor Paixao. The Brazilian was already close to an exit in the summer - he almost joined Sunderland - but manager Bruno Genesio intervened.

Like many of Marseille's players, Paixao had a difficult start to the season, but he has come good again during the club's recent resurgence. He has scored twice and produced an assist in his last four Ligue 1 outings.

Losing him in January would be a massive blow, but OM may have no choice but to listen to offers. This is where Arsenal could enter the picture. After all, they are still searching for left-wing reinforcements.

Given Marseille's predicament, Paixao could be available for a reasonable fee. His current Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) sits at €39.2 million, putting him in the same ballpark as summer signing Christos Tzolis, who cost €40m.

And indeed, Paixao is at a similar level quality-wise to the Greek, according to data analytics firm SciSports. The 26-year-old has a marginally better SciSkill rating than Tzolis, with this rating calculated by analysing hundreds of in-game data points.

In that sense, Paixao wouldn't necessarily move the needle for the Premier League champions, and he certainly wouldn't be a marquee name like Vinicius Jr. But with superstar signings hard to come by in January, he could be a very useful option to provide depth and competition.

Moreover, SciSports believes that Arsenal would be a good fit for him. The Gunners receive a solid Club Fit rating of 77 out of 100 in SciSports' Career Advice tool, so they are his best option, along with Leeds, who might be able to offer him more guaranteed minutes.

Paixao wouldn't be the flashiest signing, but he could be a useful market opportunity.