Arsenal could face a battle to keep Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after Chinese clubs again tried to sign the striker by offering to pay him nearly £300,000 a week.

Arsenal’s failure to qualify for the Champions League and their need to cut costs has encouraged the clubs, thought to be Guangzhou Evergrande and Shanghai SIPG, to believe that Aubameyang could be tempted to China at the third time of asking. The Gabon international, who will be 30 in two weeks, was the Premier League’s joint top scorer with 22 goals.

He joined Arsenal for £56 million from Borussia Dortmund in January last year, only weeks after a proposed £62 million move to Guangzhou Evergrande collapsed. Six months earlier, Tianjin Quanjian agreed to pay £71 million to the