Arsenal have had a bid in excess of £30 million turned down for Monaco winger Thomas Lemar and are now considering whether to formalise their interest in Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez.

Arsène Wenger’s transfer priorities have been the French trio of Kylian Mbappé, Alexandre Lacazette and Lemar, with Arsenal hoping to sign two new forwards ahead of Alexis Sánchez’s likely departure.

Talks have been progressing with Lyon over Lacazette - although at least one bid has been rejected - but Monaco have offered little encouragement over Mbappe and Lemar, with Arsenal now having taking fresh soundings on Mahrez’s availability.

Although Arsenal still have a distant hope of Sanchez agreeing a new contract and would prefer that he moves abroad should their contract stalemate continue, Manchester City are in an increasingly strong position to sign the striker.

This is partly because Arsenal have other players in the final year of their contracts and so would be taking an especially big gamble by allowing Sánchez to potentially leave for nothing next year and also because Bayern Munich would be reluctant to pay the Chile forward what City might offer.