Arsene Wenger has refused to confirm whether Arsenal had an interest in signing Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City this summer.
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Leicester City have been boosted with the news that the PFA Players’ Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez is not going to be leaving the club after committing his future to the club by signing a new four-year contract. The result of that: a year ago, I defended like a insane person.
“I’m very pleased about Mahrez’s renewal, but I was always confident”, Ranieri said. The striker scored a fantastic hat-trick last season at the King Power stadium in Arsenal’s 5-2 drubbing of Leicester in September.
“He has to play better because we are now also in the Champions League and we need something more to play against these big teams”, Ranieri told journalists on Thursday.
Wenger was criticised for not rushing Koscielny back for the Liverpool game, especially as Holding had never played a Premier League game before, but he says the short turnaround between the Euro 2016 final and the start of the season forced his hand. “All the players have said congratulations”. We have only to prove to ourselves that we are stronger, that we want to win.
Ranieri shifted from his safety-first stance to issue his team a points target that surpasses last season’s 81, a tougher task after losing the opening match to Hull.
Arsenal will look to continue their recent dominance of Leicester on Saturday, having beaten the Foxes twice last season.
“I had a lot of time while I was sat in a hotel doing nothing, so it was easy to think about it then and easy to put the pen to paper”. He was a revelation last season and had been linked with moves to a number of clubs over the summer, most noptably Arsenal and Barcelona – though neither is reported to have made a bid for the player.
Now 18, the Poland Under-18 global has yet to make an appearance in the Premier League for Arsenal.
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With a raucous “C’mon!” and a touchline fist-pump, Jose Mourinho celebrated a winning start to his Manchester United reign as his new side won 3-1 at Bournemouth.
