City’s move for Mahrez breaks down while Arsenal sign Aubameyang on final day

Press Association Sport understands the Premier League leaders enquired about the Algeria playmaker but were put off by the Foxes’ £95million valuation.

City were only willing to pay up to £60million for the 26-year-old, and so ended discussions without actually submitting a formal bid.

Mahrez has been keen to leave Leicester since submitting a transfer request last summer and is understood to be unhappy about being priced out of a move to the Etihad Stadium.

City’s withdrawal from the Mahrez deal was another twist to a busy deadline-day which saw Arsenal, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund involved in a three-way transfer.

Gabon forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s arrival at Arsenal for a club-record fee from Dortmund, which is reported to be in the region of £56million, was confirmed just after 11:15am.

Later on Wednesday, shortly before the transfer window closed in Germany, it was announced Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi had completed a loan switch to the Bundesliga side.

That in turn had paved the way for Olivier Giroud to leave Arsenal and be unveiled as a Chelsea player, for a fee understood to be £18million, and the France forward was at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night to see his new team play Bournemouth in the Premier League.

Arsenal attempted to bolster their defensive resources by making an approach for Jonny Evans.

But Arsenal received short shrift from the Baggies, with the two clubs understood to be far apart on their valuation of the Northern Ireland defender.

Mathieu Debuchy has followed Giroud out of the Emirates Stadium, joining French side St Etienne until the end of the season after his Arsenal contract was terminated.

Tottenham completed the signing of winger Lucas Moura from Paris St Germain on a contract until 2023.

Moura moves to Spurs for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £25million, having fallen behind Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in the PSG pecking order.

The 25-year-old Brazilian was strongly linked with Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge at Old Trafford, but he moved to PSG from Sao Paulo in January 2013 and played 229 times, scoring 46 goals.

Watford were busy as Sunderland midfielder Didier Ndong joined on loan and goalkeeper Pontus Dahlberg signed a five-and-a-half-year deal from Goteborg before returning to the Swedish side on loan for the rest of the season.

Hornets pair Costel Pantilimon and Isaac Success were both loaned for the rest of the season, to Nottingham Forest and Malaga respectively.

Elsewhere, Everton’s England Under-21 winger Ademola Lookman has joined Bundesliga club RB Leipzig on loan for the rest of the season.

Here is the January transfer window in numbers:

£56million - new Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the highest-priced of those deals, and a club record.

3 - Aubameyang's move sparked a three-pronged striker shuffle, with Arsenal selling Olivier Giroud to Chelsea who shipped Michy Batshuayi to Aubameyang's former club Borussia Dortmund on loan.

£450m - reported fees spent by Premier League clubs in the January window as a whole - double the previous record for a winter window.

£75m - Liverpool's signing of Virgil van Dijk was the first and most expensive of the month.

7 - shirt worn by both Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan after their swap deal between Manchester United and Arsenal.

4 - Stoke and Watford made the most signings in the Premier League this month.

1 - every club made at least one signing, with Manchester United and Tottenham contenting themselves with a solitary addition apiece - Sanchez and Lucas Moura respectively.