Arsenal Target Thomas Lemar Sidelined as Monaco Crash Out of the Champions League

Arsenal target Thomas Lemar will have to wait until next season to play European football again. The 22-year old was unavailable for Monaco's 4-1 defeat to RB Leipzig on Tuesday night which confirms that last season's semi-finalists will not even qualify for the Europa League. 

Having lost Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Kylian Mbappe and Tiemoue Bakayoko in the summer, Monaco have suffered a terrible Champions League campaign. 

They've lost all three home games against group opponents, RB Leipzig, Besiktas and Porto with their only points coming in two away draws. 

Form for Monaco has been better in Ligue 1, they've won nine of their first 13 games, but they are still six points behind runaway leaders PSG. 

Arsenal had a £90m bid turned down for Lemar on deadline day as Manchester City sought to sign Alexis Sanchez. Lemar would not have been a like-for-like replacement for the Chilean, but could have put his own spin playing in the same role.

PASCAL GUYOT/GettyImages

He had a storming campaign last season as Monaco reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. Lemar had more assists than any other player in the knockout stages as Monaco knocked out Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund before losing to Juventus. 

The Arsenal target has been out of action since the beginning of November with an injury and the Gunners could face competition from Barcelona and Liverpool for Lemar's signature. 

Having missed out on Lemar in the summer, Arsenal may instead try for the Lyon playmaker  Nabil Fekir, who is a close friend of Alexandre Lacazette who the Gunners signed in the summer.