Arsenal stand strong and refuse to entertain offers for Alexis

The Monaco midfielder could have moved to North London.

Sanchez is in the a year ago of his Arsenal contract and will be able to move to a club of his choosing for free next summer.

All of that means Arsene Wenger will need to strengthen his midfield and forward options before the transfer window shuts, particularly after the club’s disastrous start to the season. It was reported that the Ligue 1 giants were looking to offload either Draxler or Di Maria and with Arsenal now mostly resigned to losing Sanchez, the youngster looks like an excellent signing for Wenger.

City agreed a contract worth roughly £300,000 per week with the forward several months ago and club insiders hope they will not have to work too hard to reach a new agreement. With the prospect of losing Sanchez for nothing in less than a year, Arsenal may be keen to cash in while they can.

Gazidis had apparently informed Soriano that Arsenal had sealed a deal for Sanchez’ replacement in Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, with a £92m bid being reportedly.

And City staff witnessed first-hand the anger of agent Felicevich on Thursday evening when he colourfully told both clubs that he would “not forget” Arsenal’s role in the day’s events.

Riyad Mahrez was a consideration but it’s only 50% likely that the particular deal will go through because Arsenal haven’t tabled a firm bid but with time running out, it may still go ahead. Funnily, Sanchez is actually valued at nearly half the amount by the Arsenal hierarchy, and Wenger may finally loosen the purse strings to prove why he deserves to stay on as Gunners boss.

“Quite simply, they look to have run out of time on that front”.

Costa is in a stand-off with Chelsea and agitating for a return to Atletico Madrid, with a potential deal complicated by the fact the Spanish club are unable to register new players until January.

Formerly with Barcelona, Sanchez joined Arsenal in the summer of 2014 and has proved to be a superb signing. Despite having a plethora of funds at his disposal, his side struggled until the very end to finish in the top four.

Drinkwater was believed to be at Chelsea’s Cobham training groud last night in anticipation of his transfer, although doubt was cast on the deal when Leicester failed to sign a replacement in Sporting Lisbon’s Adrien Silva.

Wenger’s confidence Sanchez will perform exposes the risk of the Gunners’ strategy to keep a want-away player for the previous year of his contract, rather than cashing in.

Arturo Vidal has claimed that the press reports linking Chile teammate Alexis Sanchez with a switch between Arsenal and Manchester City on a deadline day were “made up”.