Mikel Arteta responds to transfer enquiries from Aston Villa, Chelsea and Newcastle United

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has spoken directly about the future of winger Emile Smith-Rowe following widely reported interest from Aston Villa, Chelsea and Newcastle United.

The 23-year-old, who is yet to play a single minute in the Premier League this season, has been the subject of transfer enquiries from all three clubs as they look to offer him more game time.

90min reported earlier in the week that Chelsea had spoken to Arsenal about signing Smith-Rowe permanently, whereas Villa and Newcastle asked about the possibility of a season-long loan.

Every single approach was blocked by the Gunners, however, as they were adamant the versatile attacking midfielder was not available for any deal. That remains the case, even on Deadline Day.

Arteta was quizzed about the speculation on Friday and gave a very clear response. “Yes,” the head coach said rapidly when asked if Smith-Rowe would still be an Arsenal player beyond 11pm.

“The role, like everybody else, is to try his best to make the team better. Obviously, I had conversations with him and it’s important for him to understand where he is.

“It was always going to be tricky the first three or four weeks. Not just for us, but for all the clubs where you see the rumours and all the players who are not playing, they are unhappy.

“We have just one game per week for a month. Everyone comes to the season with huge aspirations and there are not minutes for everybody and September will be different,” Arteta said via Metro.

No move to Villa, Chelsea or Newcastle for Smith-Rowe, then, as the trio of Premier League outfits will have to look elsewhere if they want to bolster their forward lines.