The right-back who became disenchanted at Newcastle United is a ready-made replacement for Bacary Sagna at Arsenal

Mathieu Debuchy’s imminent move to Arsenal from Newcastle United could well prove one of those rare transfer deals which improve both teams.

While Arsène Wenger is responding to Bacary Sagna’s defection to Manchester City with an ostensible upgrade at right-back Alan Pardew can use the sale of a decent but ultimately dispensable defender to rebalance dressing-room chemistry at St James’ Park.

Debuchy played 46 times for Newcastle after joining from Lille for £5.5m 18 months ago. Roughly half of those performances were disappointing and the other 50% generally impressive, sometimes truly outstanding. Happily for Arsenal, the bad games tended to come early in his Tyneside tenure as he adjusted to the rigours of the Premier League but there are still a few Newcastle fans who preferred Danny Simpson, now at Queens Park Rangers, in the right-back berth.

That should not put Arsenal supporters off. Unusually good in the air for a full back – Debuchy is virtually as proficient as Sagna in this department – and a key attacking outlet going forward, this former deep-lying midfield quasi-sweeper looks a good fit for the Emirates.

The occasional recklessness in the tackle which characterised his English induction have been increasingly ironed out and, surrounded by better players than those at Newcastle while benefiting from Wenger’s tuition, he can only improve further.

As he approaches his 29th birthday at the end of this month Debuchy is also a good age for a defender – even if Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, who does not like signing players over 26 probably feels he is cashing in at exactly the right time. By selling Debuchy for an initial sum of around £8m with, depending on appearances etc, a further two or three million to potentially follow, Newcastle have turned a tidy profit on the player inside two years. Which is precisely the way Ashley likes it.

Debuchy’s great friend Yohan Cabaye describes him as possessing “a great mentality, great fight and great fitness” and, transplanted into a new, appealing, north London habitat, Arsenal fans can expect to see all three qualities from the man keeping Sagna out of France’s first XI.

Newcastle fans also became acquainted with Debuchy’s distinctly flaky side. When Cabaye briefly went on strike last August as he attempted to force through a move to Arsenal, Debuchy’s form dipped. Pardew was somewhat disconcerted when it became apparent that, rather than be annoyed with their star midfield playmaker, Debuchy and his fellow Frenchmen in Newcastle’s squad fully supported Cabaye’s stance.

Once the latter finally left for Paris Saint-Germain in January there was a sense Debuchy had become a little emotionally disconnected from a Newcastle team who spent much of the second part of last season in freefall. Granted he did contribute the odd fine performance and was much missed during an injury-induced absence but, without Cabaye at his side, Debuchy’s brief romance with his adopted club and city waned.

Another problem was that Pardew – badly let down when Newcastle failed to replace Cabaye in January – attempted to compensate for the loss of his principal creator by making Newcastle’s tactics much more direct than before. If Debuchy is likely to be re-energised by both life in London and the prospect of playing Champions League football again, Arsenal’s more subtle style should suit his game infinitely better.

Bolstered by the capture of Siem de Jong from Ajax in an attacking midfield role and the ongoing pursuit of Montpellier’s Rémy Cabella – regarded as potentially “the new Cabaye” – Pardew is also attempting to imbue Newcastle’s tactics with greater light and shade before their groundbreaking tour to New Zealand later this month.

Off the pitch, the departure of a Frenchman from a still heavily Francophone dressing room should facilitate the introduction of another nationality and consequent rebalancing of its delicate international ecosystem.

While Newcastle have been offered Micah Richards, Manchester City’s right-back, who has struggled to establish himself at the Etihad under Manuel Pellegrini, they are looking most closely at Feyenoord’s Daryl Janmaat and Ajax’s Ricardo van Rhijn. Graham Carr, the club’s super scout, has been paying particular attention to the Dutch market and, apart from speaking excellent English, such imports would have the additional benefit of perhaps helping to keep the recently unsettled goalkeeper Tim Krul on Tyneside.

Indeed with his right-footed, highly gifted, sometime Italy, left-back, Davide Santon also well capable of playing right-back, Debuchy’s exit should be far from catastrophic for Pardew. Considering Newcastle are desperately short of strikers, not to mention still lacking midfield invention, at least part of the profits from his sale to Arsenal could be usefully redirected to fill chasms in other departments.

Wenger, meanwhile, acquires a France international who needs no acclimatising to the Premier League and, on paper at least, looks capable of fitting seamlessly into Sagna’s boots.

Definitions of mutually “no-brainer”, “win, win” transfers rarely seem better than this one.