Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta claims the club have not begun discussions to keep Alexandre Lacazette at the club beyond his current contract.
Lacazette has had a strong start to the season, scoring in both the Gunners' matches so far, after two starts. The Frenchman signed for Arsenal back in 2017 for a then-record £50m but faced competition for his place just three months later, when the club smashed their transfer record again to bring in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Despite this, Lacazette has remained a regular in the side - but now he faces a threat for his place leading Arsenal's line from highly-rated youngster Eddie Nketiah. Next summer, Lacazette will be down to the final year of his contract and with Arsenal needing to strengthen elsewhere this summer, there have been rumours that he could leave.
Lacazette himself has moved to quash such talk, however, suggesting he's very happy in North London. Now, Mikel Arteta has backed up these claims but admitted that his employers haven't offered his No.9 a new deal yet.
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"At the moment, we haven't started any negotiations," Arteta said. "We have a lot of things still to do in this market and at the moment we are focusing on those things."
"He's a player I'm really happy with. I think we've shown him a lot of faith since I arrived here."
"But we cannot start any speculation. We know that any player who is under two years of their contract is always going to be talked about."
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Arsenal are constantly linked with Atletico Madrid's Thomas Partey and Lyon's Houssem Aouar at the moment, with Arteta hoping both midfielders are secured before October's transfer deadline. There looks like there could be a breakthrough with one of the players at least, with fellow midfielder Lucas Torreira potentially leaving North London in the coming days.
Torreira is desperate to leave the Emirates and has an admirer in Atletico boss Diego Simeone, according to reports. Arsenal are keen to factor in the Uruguayan when negotiating a deal for Partey but so far, the Spanish club are standing firm on their stance that Arsenal must pay the release clause in full. It's thought that they only want Torreira on loan, due to financial problems.
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Defender Shkodran Mustafi is also close to leaving the club, with intermediaries having offered him to Lazio in recent days. Arsenal didn't think they would be selling the much-maligned German in this window - due to an injury he has - but are now holding out for €15m from the Roman outfit.
Rob Holding, Callum Chambers, Mohamed Elneny, Matteo Guendouzi and Sead Kolasinac are all linked away from Arsenal right now, too.
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