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Arsenal news: £6.5m deal on the table, key man set for Liverpool return

By on August 21, 2017

It’s been another busy day at Arsenal HQ so here are a couple of stories that have been doing the rounds today….

The Ox offered bumper deal

alex-oxlade-chamberlain arsenal

Let’s start with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the Daily Star claim Arsenal have responded to Chelsea’s interest in the midfielder by offering him a new lucrative contract.

The Ox has less than one year remaining on his current contract and he’s so far rebuffed our attempts to tie him down to a new deal despite Arsenal offering close to £100,000-a-week.

Chelsea are among the clubs who’ve been strongly linked in recent weeks and the Daily Star claim they are prepared to pay £40m to sign Oxlade-Chamberlain with the midfielder believed to be tempted by the prospect of playing for the Premier League champions.

However, it looks like Arsene Wenger isn’t ready to lose the 24-year-old just yet as the newspaper says Arsenal have now offered Oxlade-Chamberlain a new contract worth £6.5m-per-season – which equates to £125,000-a-week.

Wenger is clearly trying to show the player that he’s part of his first team plans as he’s been shoehorned in to our team for the first few games of the season but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to persuade The Ox to commit his future to the club.

If it was down to me, I’d sell him if he doesn’t sign a new deal before the transfer window closes as we’d be mad to let him join a rival on a free next summer.

Sanchez set for return….maybe

alexis sanchez arsenal

Next up and the Daily Mail are reporting that Alexis Sanchez is in-line to make his return against Liverpool this coming weekend but Wenger has warned fans not to expect too much for him.

Sanchez is yet to feature this season after suffering an apparent abdominal injury in training earlier this month – although some skeptics believe the ‘injury’ is more to do with his desire to leave the club.

The 28-year-old is back in full training but his fitness won’t be 100% yet as he returned to pre-season training late due to his participation at the Confederations Cup this summer.

Wenger says he could be in contention to face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday as long as Alexis comes through this week in training without issue but he warned the Chilean international may not be at his best just yet.

Wenger is quoted by the Daily Mail as saying:

‘If all goes well through the week, he should be available to be selected for the next game,’

‘He has not played for a long time. Look, we will prepare him well. He was out with a muscular strain and hopefully he will survive the tests first before he comes back.

‘He’s not played now for six weeks and it’s difficult to be at your best in the first game straight away.’

By putting the little caveat in Wenger has left room to leave Sanchez out of the Liverpool game if he conveniently fails his late fitness tests just days before the close of the transfer window.

We could certainly do with Sanchez’s quality on the pitch but sadly it looks like he’s not going to sign a new contract so I worry about his state of mind if he’s forced to stay for the next campaign.

Like Oxlade-Chamberlain, if Sanchez doesn’t sign a new deal, then I’d cash-in as there is no point keeping a player who doesn’t want to be here and knows he can hold talks with foreign clubs in January.