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.

The French international told Canal+, “I think it has arrived at the right time, I think this summer will be the moment when we will have to change the air and discover something else.

“Always with the idea of advancing and progressing football and on a human level. Will continue to work again, hoping that there will be some great opportunities coming this summer.”

Wenger ‘angry’ at Chelsea defeat

Arsenal’s pursuit for the Premier League title was left in jeopardy after the Gunners suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat at the hands of direct rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The result leaves Arsenal a whopping 12 points adrift at the top of the table and following the game, under-fire manager Arsene Wenger has gone on to state that he has been left both disappointed and angry with his side’s display against the Blues.

The 67-year-old said, “I’m not subdued. I’m disappointed and angry because we lost a very big game. But I’m not subdued. The result is there and we certainly have a big wait in the race for the championship.

“We have shown in the past that we can recover from that. That defeat against Watford had bigger consequences, maybe, than expected. We lacked a little bit what makes our game efficient. In the final third we didn’t look dangerous enough. That was difficult to watch from upstairs.”

Hoddle makes damning assessment of Mesut Ozil

The entire Arsenal side put in an insipid performance during their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday but one player who has been subjected to very harsh criticism in particular is Mesut Ozil.

Ozil had very little impact throughout the clash and following the game, Tottenham legend Glenn Hoddle has slammed the German international by comparing his poor performance to Chelsea’s man of the match Eden Hazard.

Hoddle wrote in his column for the Daily Mail, "Given that Chelsea are so good as a unit, it's hard to single out an individual, but Eden Hazard was outstanding on Saturday.

“When you play the big games, you want your big players to step up. That's exactly what he did. The contrast with Mesut Ozil was unavoidable. The bigger the game, the better Hazard plays.

"For Ozil, despite his record as a World Cup winner and a La Liga champion at Real Madrid, you feel it's the opposite."