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Riyad Mahrez may not receive the warmest of receptions at Leicester City this weekend after claiming he "lost two years" of his career at the club.

Mahrez comes back to the King Power Stadium with Manchester City on Saturday for the first time since his controversial comments.

In November, Mahrez outlined his frustration at being denied an exit from the King Power Stadium after the miraculous title win of 2016.

The winger pushed hard for a move away, particularly in the final year of his Leicester career, and eventually joined Manchester City in 2018 for a then-club-record sale of £60m.

But the Algerian international believes he should have been playing for an elite club far sooner, and has said that he was close to joining Arsenal in the summer after City lifted the Premier League trophy.

Despite his desire to move, he signed a new contract at Leicester in 2016.

"After the year of the title, if I’d left for a top team, it would not have been the same story,” he told France Football in November. “For me, it is clear that I lost two years at the very highest level. I lost two years!

“Because instead of arriving at Man City at 27, I could have been there at 24, 25 years.

“Leicester blocked me. They told me: ‘You do not go, you do not go!’

"My agent had talked with (Arsene) Wenger who really wanted me, it was almost done with Arsenal in the summer of 2016.

“I was really frustrated. It's not easy to go from being a better Premier League player to being part of a team fighting for survival. It's not the same job.”

Since joining Man City, Mahrez has made 76 appearances, including 51 starts, scoring 21 goals, providing 25 assists, and winning three trophies.

He scored his side's first goal when Man City beat Leicester 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium in December.