Confirmed: The 10 Arsenal players who are out of contract in 2018

Arsene Wenger has confirmed 10 high-profile first team stars could leave Arsenal in the summer of 2018 unless they extend their current contracts.

The futures of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are currently dominating the agenda at the north London club, but the likes of influential midfielder Santi Cazorla, England international Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and last season’s top scorer Olivier Giroud are equally uncertain.

Negotiations are underway to extend the contracts of the club’s two star players, Ozil and Sanchez, while Wenger also confirmed talks have commenced with Cazorla and Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The Spaniard, like club captain Mertesacker, could walk away as early as this summer, but both have options to extend their present deals for a further 12 months and Wenger admitted his club face a busy period as they look to convince some of their most influential and long-serving players to put pen to paper.

‘That explains to you why we have a lot of work to do, but you are only interested in two cases,’ said Wenger.

‘There are six or seven cases at the moment, but that is the usual case — it is every year like that.

‘We have started talking to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and we start as well, and will extend certainly, with Santi Cazorla.’

Wojiech Szczesny and Jack Wilshere, currently on loan at Roma and Bournemouth, as well as full-backs Kieran Gibbs and Mathieu Debuchy could also be free agents in 18 months’ time.