Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has insisted discussions over the future of Granit Xhaka will wait until the end of the season.
Xhaka has been central to the Gunners’ title bid this campaign but is approaching the final 12 months of his deal at the Emirates Stadium.
Bayer Leverkusen are interested in taking the Switzerland international back to Germany, where the midfielder played for four years with Borussia Monchengladbach before he moved to England in 2016.
It has been a rollercoaster journey for Xhaka at Arsenal but his manager is eager to finish strongly in the final two games before he switches his attention to a number of contract scenarios.
Arteta said: “The clarity is there. He is a player that has played I think every minute since I have been the manager.
“He is an incredibly respected figure at the club. He has a great story around him with what he has achieved at the club in going through very tough moments and he is a key and very important part of us.
“Whatever happens is something we will discuss, certainly not now.”
Second-placed Arsenal have faced some criticism this week after their 3-0 defeat at home to Brighton left Manchester City on the brink of a fifth Premier League victory in six years.
Pep Guardiola’s side can defend their crown this weekend if the Gunners lose at Nottingham Forest on Saturday or if City can beat Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium a day later.
Arteta, in a thinly-veiled dig at their detractors, stated they have been up against one of the best teams ever.
“We have shown this season,” Arteta replied when asked if Arsenal can be title contenders again next season.
“We’re still there, with two games to go we can still be champions against probably the best team in Premier League history.
“For 10 months we’re still there. There’s two games still to go and we’re not going to bottle that for sure.
“What happens next season will depend on what we do, how we evolve and how we start. That prediction is very difficult to do today.”
Quizzed on the level of the squad, with Champions League football to come next term, Arteta conceded improvements will need to be made before Arsenal return to Europe’s top competition.
“At the level that we want? No. We didn’t have the capacity to do that as well with the Europa League so it’s part of that evolution,” he explained.
“We have made a lot of good steps and strong steps in that journey and we have to continue. That never ends.
“We want to be better and the rest will be better, then the margins will be higher and we have to start to live with those standards and improve and be smarter.”
Arsenal received positive news on Thursday when Aaron Ramsdale agreed a new long-term deal with the club.
It will keep Ramsdale contracted to the Gunners until the summer of 2026, the PA news agency understands.
Arteta is confident the likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and William Saliba will follow.
He added: “Delighted with the news for Aaron. He fully deserves that new contract, that extension and we want to keep our talent at the club and we want to build on that.
“There are a few more who are very relevant for us to continue with that relationship. We’re working on that.
“We are trying (with Saliba). We are having conversations and we are trying to maintain the talent we have at the club as I said before, but things take time.
“You have to agree it. There are different parties involved. I think everybody’s intention is the same and hopefully we’ll find the right solution.”
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf) and Gabriel Martinelli (ankle) will not feature again this season.
“Gabi’s is a pretty nasty injury, we need to assess in the next week how long he’ll be out for,” Arteta said.
Barcelona must 'work hard' to achieve Champions League glory, says Flick
Hansi Flick tempered expectations of Barcelona's chances of silverware in his first season in charge ahead of facing Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League.
Flick has led Barca to 13 wins from 15 games in all competitions, scoring 50 goals in those games while conceding just 14 times.
Some standout matches have seen Barca thrash Clasico rivals Real Madrid 4-0 while also brushing aside Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League in their last match in the competition.
While Flick understood the fans' excitement after those results, he urged his side to keep their feet on the ground with a long season still in front of them.
"We have to work hard. There are many teams who dream of the same thing, of winning (the Champions League)," Flick said.
"For the moment, we're going to focus on working hard and grinding out, so then we'll see what happens. We have to focus on our goal which is to keep improving.
"A team's form fluctuates a lot over a long season. The important thing is to focus on winning the next match. Sure, after the match against Bayern everything changed.
"But we are just starting. The important thing is how we finish the season. We could say that our goal is to be in the top eight."
Flick, however, insisted he was not surprised by his side's impressive start to the campaign despite enduring a trophyless season last term.
Barca are nine points clear at the top of LaLiga and 11th in the Champions League table ahead of facing Red Star, who are without a win from their three games so far.
"Before we came here we analysed the whole team, every player. We realised that there was very good quality overall," Flick said.
"Another thing to point out is that we wanted to improve how we defend and did small changes in the way we play. The players liked it and they are happy working on it.
"The players play a big role, they are helping us a lot.
"The start was already good on the pre-season in North American and the players are very happy, although there are still many things to improve."
And Barca will be confident of keeping their fine form going against a side that has lost 81% of their matches in the Champions League (P21 W2 D2 L17).
This is the first European meeting between the two sides since October 1996 in the Cup Winners’ Cup, a 1-1 draw with Giovanni cancelling out a Zoran Jovicic's opener for the Serbians.
PSV 4-0 Girona: Dutch side get first win of Champions League
PSV Eindhoven won their first match in the Champions League this season as they thrashed Girona 4-0 at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday.
Ryan Flamingo got the scoring under way after 16 minutes as he turned Malik Tillman's long throw home, despite replays showing that it should have been disallowed as Tillman's foot was over the byline before releasing the ball.
Tillman got himself on the scoresheet 17 minutes later with a fine finish after he arribed into the box unopposed.
Things went from bad to worth for Girona after half-time, with Arnau Martinez receiving a red card 10 minutes into the second half for a second bookable offence.
From then, it was all one-way traffic and PSV might feel aggrieved not to have won by a bigger margin given their glut of second-half chances.
Ismael Saibari was next to put the ball in the back of the net, although his effort was ruled out for a foul in the build-up following a VAR review.
Johan Bakayoko did get PSV's third with seven minutes to go, before a Ladislav Krejci own goal wrapped up the rout in the 88th minute. The result leaves Girona 26th in the table on three points, while PSV are 19th with five points.
Odegaard returns to full Arsenal training ahead of Inter tie
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has returned to full training after spending two months out of action with an ankle injury.
Odegaard has missed 12 matches for the Gunners in all competitions after damaging his ankle ligaments against Austria while on international duty with Norway in September.
The 25-year-old midfielder trained with Arsenal ahead of their trip to the San Siro to face Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta's side have, however, struggled in Odegaard's absence recently, failing to win any of their last three games in the Premier League.
In the seven games that Odegaard has missed in the top-flight, Arsenal's win percentage dropped from 66.7% to 42.9% after going unbeaten in their first three games.
The Gunners have also averaged 1.6 points per game without Odegaard, compared to 2.3 points won with the Norwegian in their ranks.
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