Arsenal play Southampton at the Emirates on Sunday on the back of a lively attacking performance in the 4-1 victory over CSKA Moscow in their first leg of the Europa League quarter final tie, none more so than from two goal hero Aaron Ramsey.

The box-to-box 27-year-old midfielder – who also hit the post and could have had four goals on a night when Arsenal purred in attack on the road to Lyon – is an important player for the Gunners.

However, the Welshman has yet to agree a new deal with only 16 months of his contract remaining – prompting fears the former Cardiff player could yet run down his contract in echoes of Jack Wilshere’s situation.

Arsenal and Wilshere have failed to come to an agreement on a new deal, and with only a few months left on his current deal there is a real fear the 26-year-old may depart North London this summer.

The club has already lost Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United in a swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan after the Chilean deliberately ran his contract down.

When asked if Ramsey could do something similar Wenger said: “I don’t see why. Sanchez was at the end of his contract.

“Look, he has a year and four months left. I don’t see what that should be a problem. People always want problems.

“I don’t want to create artificial problems because I have enough without that.

“The most important thing is that the player meets his needs at the club and all the rest is less important because nowadays you don’t need to feel sorry for the money they make, they’re all well-off you know. That is the most important.”

The long-serving Frenchman has to decide whether to play Ramsey in Sunday’s match against Southampton at the Emirates ahead of the trip to Russia.

But he has hailed his midfielder for showing great form, saying: “Maybe Aaron has turned a corner as well because for a while our fans were a bit sceptical.

“The biggest congratulations to Aaron is to how well he had developed and turned everybody around in their views and that shows a great personality.”