Arsenal target Alexandre Lacazette says he will leave Lyon at the end of the season

Alexandre Lacazette has been one of the most prolific strikers in Europe over the past few years and Arsenal have been keen admirers of the French international for quite a while now.

It was believed that Arsenal had indeed placed a bid of around £29 million in an attempt to sign Lacazette last summer but the move evidently did not come into fruition.

Nonetheless, Arsenal have been given a huge encouragement to revisit their interest in Lacazette once again next year after the 25-year-old admitted that he will be looking to leave Lyon at the end of the current Ligue 1 campaign.

Martin Keown believes Arsene Wenger will extend his stay at the Emirates

Following Arsenal’s extremely disappointing 3-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, the Gunners have fallen a whopping 12 points behind the Blues in the Premier League title race and it would be fair to state that their hopes of claiming the English crown is already all but over.

With another season of disappointment, there have been widespread calls by the fans for manager Arsene Wenger to step down from his current position at the end of the current campaign when his contract expires and reports have claimed that the 67-year-old is seriously contemplating ending his two decade long stay with the North London side.

Nonetheless, the board clearly want Wenger to continue after tabling him a new two year extension and now club legend Martin Keown has gone on to state his belief that the veteran Frenchman will eventually sign a new deal with the club.

Wenger could leave this summer following fan criticism

Arsenal’s hopes of claiming the Premier League title this season was left in tatters following an extremely disappointing 1-0 defeat at the hands of Watford at the Emirates Stadium in midweek and the Gunners currently find themselves a whopping nine points off of leaders Chelsea in the table.

Following the result, frustrated Arsenal fans have once again voiced their anger at Arsenal’s failure to mount a Premier League challenge and many are now calling for manager Arsene Wenger to step down when his contract ends at the end of the current campaign.

The Arsenal board want to keep hold of Wenger after tabling a new two year extension for the Frenchman to consider but the Daily Mirror have now gone on to reveal that the veteran boss could pass up on the offer as he no longer feels loved by the club faithful.

Arsenal complete busy January transfer window

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger had revealed very early on that he would not be making any major signings during the January transfer window and he certainly came through on his promise as no high profile player arrived at the Emirates Stadium last month.

However, this is not to say that Arsenal were not busy in January on the transfer front as the Gunners completed no less than eight deals, most of them departures of young players on loan. Here is the list of the transfers completed by Arsenal during the window –

Akpom joins Brighton

It has been confirmed that Brighton and Hove Albion have completed the signing of Chuba Akpom from Arsenal. The 21-year-old joins the Seagulls on a loan deal till the end of the season and he will be looking to boost the Championship leaders’ hopes of earning promotion into the Premier League.

Akpom has plenty of experience in the second tier of English football, having featured 41 times for Hull City last season and Brighton boss Chris Hughton was most certainly very delighted to capture the services of the promising Arsenal attacker amid fierce competition.