Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is convinced unsettled striker Alexis Sanchez will stay at the club – adding bizarrely he is ‘happy’ at the situation.

Speaking after the Gunners lacklustre 2-1 home defeat by La Liga side Sevilla in the Emirates Cup on Sunday he is adamant the Chilean livewire forward will remain in North London despite continuing interest from suitors Manchester City.

Despite the loss the North Londoners lifted the trophy for the fifth time by virtue of goals scored aided by Saturday’s 5-2 rout of Benfica.

It was harsh on the Spaniards who left the tournament with two wins out of two, even prompting their new manager Eduardo Berizzo to state it was ‘strange’.

However Wenger was relaxed about Sanchez’s future as he moves in to the final year of his contract, insisting it would not affect his performances.

“Look, when you are a football player you perform until the last day of your contract.

“Does it change if you have one year or two years to go? When you go out on the football pitch you want to do well.

“Do you really think [players] sit in the dressing room before the game and you think ‘oh I have only one year to go I will not play well today’.

“Where does that come from?

“When you are a football player you want to go out and do as well as you can.

“What has that to do with the length of your contract?

“As long as you work you do well.”

Strangely Wenger then insisted he was ‘happy’ Sanchez has not signed his contract yet, saying in the future it such a state of affairs would be normal.

He explained: “I think in the future you will see this more and more – the fact big players go towards the end of their contract.

“Transfers become so high even for normal players so you will see more and more players going to the end of their contract because no-one will pay the amount of money demanded. I am convinced in the next ten years it will become huge.

“It is not an issue [that players are going towards the end of their contracts]. It is an ideal situation.

“I am amazed you are surprised. It looks normal to me.

“Every situation is different. Sometimes you have players who run out their contracts because you do not want to extend them.

“Nobody knows if Sanchez will extend his contract here. I think the performance on the day does not depend on the length of the contract. If that was true we would sign everyone for 20 years and then we would be happy.

“What is important is that when you go out there you perform.”

When pressed about whether he believed Sanchez would leave Arsenal Wenger replied: “Look what can I do about that?

“One day he will go and Arsenal will go on.

“We will all go and Arsenal hopefully will go on.

“Yes of course [I think he will stay]. How many times did I tell you that.”