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Arsenal will offer Per Mertesacker a new contract to keep him at the Emirates for the next three years.

At the end of this season, the Germany international will have one year left on his deal.

Manager Arsene Wenger wants to ensure that the central defender prolongs his stay, and talks about an extension are imminent.

Mertesacker — who is 29 on Sunday — has been in commanding form during the last nine months and is a key man in Wenger’s plans for the Gunners.

He has settled at Arsenal and has now been joined by Germany team-mate Mesut Ozil, a £42.5million arrival from Real Madrid.

With another Germany representative in Lukas Podolski also at the club, Mertesacker is at ease on and off the field.

He is showing the form that prompted Wenger to invest £9.9m to bring him from Werder Bremen — and he will have the perfect chance to show how he has developed at the Emirates on Tuesday night in the Champions League, when he will be up against the transfer target that got away — Gonzalo Higuain.

The striker was on Wenger’s wanted list for more than a year and he was confident he had landed his man during the summer in a £23m deal.

AC Milan were also keen on the Argentina international, but he chose Napoli and linking up with former Liverpool and Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez.

But Wenger knows the threat posed by Higuain and Mertesacker will be aware of the danger.

“We were working on two or three targets and Higuain was one of them,” said the manager as he looked forward to Tuesday’s clash.

“It didn’t come off in the end but that doesn’t take anything away from his quality.

“Napoli took advantage at the right moment.

“As we know, Real Madrid sold two great players. One of them went to Napoli, one to Arsenal. So it is 1-1 on that front.”