Arsenal fans must be thanking God that January is nearly upon them.

Not because Arsene Wenger is likely to splash big cash in order to secure their place in the top four next season - the long-serving Frenchman hardly ever does that.

The Gunners fans are more likely to welcome the turn of the year so that the futures of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil can be resolved.

Both players will be out of contract come the summer of 2018 and the pair won't be short of suitors.

The red half of north London are understandably desperate to keep both men, but with their contracts running down and no agreement in sight, the indications haven't been good.

Sanchez has six goals and three assists in 20 appearances this term and that's some way off the pace that saw him grab 30 goals and 19 assists last year.

Manchester City were heavily linked with a move for the Chilean last summer but Arsenal resisted their advances as they could not replace the former Barcelona man in time.

With City eleven points clear at the top of the Premier League, the prospect of Sanchez linking up with former Barca boss Pep Guardiola is a frightening one. The Gunners are already closer to the relegation zone than they are Man City.

And Sanchez's showings in Arsenal's last two Premier League games - the 3-1 defeat to Manchester United and the 1-1 draw with Southampton - show he's not trying like he used to.

According to The Mirror, Sanchez remarkably gave the ball away a combined 66 times in those matches - 32 against Southampton and 34 against United, second and first respectively in terms of the most amount of times any Arsenal player given it away in a game all season.

Also, Sanchez covered just 9.3km in the Southampton game, comfortably the least distance of any Gunner who completed 90 minutes and just under 1km shy of the second-worst.

Sanchez ran just 9km against Manchester United as well, also the least of any Gunner.

Once considered one of the hardest working forwards in Europe, Sanchez is simply not putting in the same shift that he used to and worse still, he's not taking care of the ball.