The long-running saga over Alexis Sanchez’s future is set to go down to the wire, with Manchester City preparing to make one final offer in the region of £70 million and Arsenal spending transfer deadline day scouting Europe for a replacement.

The Gunners began today facing a mammoth task of resisting strong interest in Sanchez from City. He has made it clear he would prefer a move to be completed before tonight’s 11pm deadline and in a bid to avoid keeping a wantaway player, Standard Sport understands Arsenal have begun to explore the possibility of signing Paris Saint-Germain winger Julian Draxler and Everton midfielder Ross Barkley.

City have sent a medical and legal team out to Chile, where they are on standby to complete the formalities of a transfer should a fee be agreed in time. The timeframe is complicated by Sanchez’s involvement in Chile’s World Cup qualifier against Paraguay, which kicks off at 11.30pm UK time.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has spent the summer denying that Sanchez would be sold, but the insipid nature of last weekend’s 4-0 defeat at Liverpool only underlined the dangers of keeping players with ambiguous commitment to the club.

Wenger also denied Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would leave, but the 24-year-old’s poor performance at Anfield — having already told the club he would not sign a new deal — prompted Arsenal to sanction a £40m sale to Liverpool.

That deal will be completed today, after Oxlade-Chamberlain passed a medical at St George’s Park last night before flying to Malta for England’s World Cup qualifier tomorrow.

Selling Sanchez would be a different matter altogether, however, given his talismanic importance to the club, not to mention the symbolic element of reluctantly losing a key player so late in the transfer window.

The Gunners are therefore unlikely to sell unless a suitable replacement can be brought in — but that is not a straightforward task.

City have so far refused any attempts to insert Raheem Sterling or Sergio Aguero into a part-exchange deal for Sanchez and so Wenger has been forced to look at other options.

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2016 AFP/Getty Images 12/20 Gylfi Sigurddson £45m



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2017 AFP/Getty Images 13/20 Raheem Sterling £44m



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2018 Getty Images 3/20 Romelu Lukaku £70m



Everton to Manchester United



2017 Man Utd via Getty Images 4/20 Angel Di Maria £59.7m



Real Madrid to Manchester United



2014 Getty 5/20 Alvaro Morata £58m



Real Madrid to Chelsea



2017 Getty Images 6/20 Kevin De Bruyne £55m



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2015 AFP/Getty Images 7/20 Alexandre Lacazette £52m



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2017 Arsenal FC via Getty Images 8/20 Benjamin Mendy £52m



Monaco to Manchester City



2017 Getty Images 9/20 Kyle Walker £50m



Tottenham to Manchester City



2017 Getty Images 10/20 Fernando Torres £50m



Liverpool to Chelsea



2011 Getty Images 11/20 John Stones £47.5m



Everton to Manchester City



2016 AFP/Getty Images 12/20 Gylfi Sigurddson £45m



Swansea to Everton



2017 AFP/Getty Images 13/20 Raheem Sterling £44m



Liverpool to Manchester City



2015 Getty Images 14/20 Bernardo Silva £43m



Monaco to Manchester City



2017 AFP/Getty Images 15/20 Mesut Ozil £42.5m



Real Madrid to Arsenal



2013 Arsenal FC via Getty Images 16/20 Nemanja Matic £40m



Chelsea to Manchester United



2017 Man Utd via Getty Images 17/20 Tiemoue Bakayoko £40m



Monaco to Chelsea



2017 AFP/Getty Images 18/20 Sergio Aguero £38m



Atletico Madrid to Manchester City



2011 REUTERS 19/20 Juan Mata £37.1m



Chelsea to Manchester United



2014 Getty Images 20/20 Leroy Sane £37m



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2016 Getty Images

Wenger has tracked Draxler for years and although Germany coach Joachim Loew has expressed his doubt over PSG’s willingness to sell, the French club’s need to comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules following the lavish spending on Neymar and Kylian Mbappe may tempt them into a last-minute sale.

Barkley has long been linked with a move to either Tottenham or, with less regularity, Chelsea but Arsenal have asked to be kept informed of any progress despite the midfielder not being available until December due to a hamstring injury.

Neither Draxler nor Barkley are like-for-like replacements for Sanchez – and they are unlikely to try and sign both – but the fact Arsenal are examining their options so late in the window only reinforces the notion they are reluctantly considering selling to City.

Wenger told Standard Sport last week that a deal for Monaco winger Thomas Lemar was “dead”, but should Liverpool receive any encouragement in their pursuit of the 21-year-old, Arsenal would most likely revive their interest.

Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez was this morning given dispensation by Algeria to leave their training camp to negotiate a move, but it is understood that Arsenal were not then among the potential suitors.

The Gunners have rejected a £20m bid from Leicester City for Calum Chambers, £8m below their asking price. Chambers has had limited first-team opportunities and was left out of the matchday squad recently despite Arsenal struggling with availability at centre-back.

Leicester will have to return with an improved offer and they may do so if Jonny Evans leaves West Brom to join Manchester City. Arsenal have also expressed an interest in Evans but have so far proved unwilling to meet the £30m valuation. Their failure to reach a deal makes it less likely that Shkodran Mustafi will join Inter Milan, despite talks over a season-long loan with an option to buy continuing for some time.

Lucas Perez is expected to return to Deportivo La Coruna. The clubs were close to agreeing a deal worth about £14m, but the structure of payments became an issue and Deportivo then reintroduced the idea of a loan.

Talks are ongoing, but an agreement in some form is expected and Deportivo have an extra day to negotiate a deal as the Spanish transfer window closes 24 hours later.

Jack Wilshere’s future remains uncertain. The midfielder is keen to fight for his first-team place, but it remains possible he could leave today, while Mathieu Debuchy is also available for transfer and is seeking a return to France.

Arsenal are interested in Nice midfielder Jean Michael Seri, but Wenger had yet to formalise that interest with less than 10 hours to go.