Arsène Wenger followed his pre-match press conference on Tuesday by sitting down with newspaper reporters - and Alexis was top of the agenda.
The boss said he was hopeful and confident that Alexis would agree a new deal with us. Even if he doesn’t, the manager would rather keep Alexis for the final year of his contract than sell him - and especially not to a Premier League rival.
“You amortise a transfer during the length of the contract,” explained Wenger. “So when you play an amount of money, every year you deduct, when he signs four years, 25 per cent of a contract.