Arsenal endured a dramatic transfer day, where there were plenty of rumours concerning outgoing and incoming deals, but the two biggest pieces of potential business from the North London side didn’t go ahead.

The Gunners held onto the services of Alexis Sanchez despite vast interest from Manchester City and failed to complete a move for Monaco ace Thomas Lemar, in a deal that would have seen Arsenal set a club-record fee for the second time this summer.

Arsene Wenger and the board have been criticised for a failure to see both deals go ahead, as the likelihood is Arsenal will lose the Chilean superstar on a free transfer next summer, and there have been questions as to whether the South American will be committed to Arsenal this season.

However, French boss Wenger has no concerns regarding Alexis Sanchez and told BeIN Sports Arsenal’s Player of the Year will be ‘100% committed’ to the Gunners this season.

“100 per cent. Your interest is always to perform. It was not very close. It’s very difficult for me to speak about that because what I want the player to do is now focus on his career, on his season and on Arsenal football club.”

Wenger also confirmed that Lemar turned down the opportunity to move to Arsenal on Deadline Day, which in turn meant that a transfer for Alexis Sanchez also did not go ahead.

“Lemar chose to stay at Monaco. You have to respect what happens on the negotiation side. I know we live in an era of transparency but at some stage, to respect everybody, you have to not talk too much about that.”

“Look I cannot tell you everything that happened because after that when you decide to let a player of that calibre go, you need to replace him because nobody would understand that you let the player go and when you cannot do it, you keep the player and make a financial sacrifice because what you want, at the end of the day, is to have a team who has a good potential and top quality.”

“That means two things: Alexis Sanchez will go, like Mesut Ozil, in the final year of his contract or you think during the season you will find a way to extend the contract or at the end of the season the players go for free.”

Arsenal tackle Bournemouth after the international break, where they’ll look to bounce back following two consecutive Premier League defeats.