SHAKESPEARE: OUR FAB FOUR ARE STAYING

CRAIG SHAKESPEARE insists Leicester City will not be left in limbo and sell their four unsettled stars before the transfer window shuts.

Roma have bid £36million for transfer-listed Riyad Mahrez (inset top), which is way short of the Foxes’ £50m THIS game will see the English top-flight season begin on a Friday for the first time in its 129 year history.

LEICESTER are on a 21-game winless run against Arsenal in the Premier League (D7 L14), with their only win coming in their first ever Prem encounter in November 1994 (a 2-1 victory). ARSENAL have won their last 10 Premier League home games with Leicester; their joint longest winning streak at home against any opponent. end up

JAMIE VARDY has scored Leicester’s last three goals against Arsenal in the Premier League, but he is yet to on the winning side.

THE Gunners have won only one of their last seven opening day Premier League fixtures, losing three of the last four (W1 D3 L3). ARSENAL have collected more opening day red cards than any other Premier League side (6), with Laurent Koscielny getting two of the last three (2010-11 v Liverpool, 2013-14 v Aston Villa). LEICESTER have won just one of their last eight Premier League games to start the season (4-2 over Sunderland in 2015, D4 L3). ARSENAL have never lost a Premier League game contested on a Friday (W6 D1) while Leicester have never won one on this weekday (D1 L2). ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE scored 91 goals in the French Ligue 1 in the last four seasons; more than any other player in the league in that period. price tag on the 26-year-old. Chelsea are weighing up a £30m move for midfielder Danny Drinkwater (inset, bottom), while Liverpool and Atletico Madrid are interested in keeper Kasper Schmeichel and striker Jamie Vardy.

Drinkwater and Schmeichel have four years left on their estimated £100,000-a-week contracts, while Mahrez has three and Vardy has two.

So far the only bids to come in have been for Mahrez, but Roma are well adrift of Leicester’s valuation.

And boss Shakespeare (above) is confident City’s Thai owners will not buckle and sell the prized quartet.

He said: “Until we get the bids, we’re never quite sure of the amounts, so I don’t get involved in that too much.

“We’re a club which doesn’t need to sell, which is vitally important.

“We’ve got owners who want to keep the best players and add to what we have.

“Someone could make a bid and we’d turn it down and we just get on with it.

“Every manager’s nightmare is to lose a player in the last 24 hours or on the day of the window closing and you can’t get a replacement.

“I wouldn’t sleep at night if all the scenarios that are put to me actually happened.”

Despite the speculation over his future, Mahrez could start tonight against Arsenal at the Emirates as a reward for his professional conduct since his transfer request.

As regards the bid for the Algeria international, Shakespeare said: “I’m told it was well below the valuation.

“It could run to August 31, but we wouldn’t want it to.”