Alexis Sanchez returned to training with Arsenal on Friday but his future at the club is no nearer to being resolves, his manager Arsene Wenger confirmed.
The 28-year-old is the subject of interest from Manchester City and Chelsea but with less than a year remaining on his contract Arsenal are insistent that he will not be sold, even if that means losing Sanchez on a free next summer.
Sanchez played no part in Arsenal’s opening game of the season - Friday’s thrilling 4-3 win over Leicester - and remains a doubt for Saturday’s visit to Stoke.
He was however watching on from the director’s box as Arsenal, inspired by substitutes Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud, turned a 3-2 deficit into a triumph in the final 10 minutes at the Emirates.
Wenger confirmed there was no update on Sanchez’s future, but did reveal that the Chile international was back at London Colney after an abdominal injury.
“He practised well today, this morning, had a good session for the first time because he had a little muscular strain. He is focused and happy in the dressing room because we won the game.”
Arsenal ultimately did not need Sanchez to fire them to victory on Friday night, with a quartet of forwards proving there is more to Wenger’s frontline than last season’s top scorer.
In Pictures | Arsenal vs Leicester | 11/08/2017
Record signing Alexandre Lacazette and Danny Welbeck found the net in the first half before Ramsey and Giroud, who Wenger admitted he had “opened the [exit] door” for earlier in the summer, saved Arsenal’s blushes after Shinji Okazaki and a Jamie Vardy brace had set Leicester on course for an away win.
“I feel overall we have good ingredients in the squad and it is a good opportunity at Stoke to show it again away from home,” Wenger said.
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“I played with a four at the end with [Alex Oxlade-]Chamberlain on the right and [Hector] Bellerin on the left and both of them did very well.”