Sunday’s Player of the Match Jorginho was never likely to leave Arsenal in the January transfer window, according to a report.

Jorginho was one of the stars of the show for Arsenal as they defeated league leaders Liverpool 3-1 on Sunday, with the former Chelsea midfielder winning the official Player of the Match award.

At the time of writing, Jorginho is also on track to win the Arsenal fan vote, earning over 50% of the votes cast so far.

Yet there was some speculation around Jorginho’s Arsenal future in the January transfer window, rumours which Fabrizio Romano claims were unfounded.

Romano writes that despite the rumours, it was never a concrete possibility for Jorginho to leave Arsenal in January.

There was interest in the midfielder, as you’d expect, but there were never any negotiations or talks over a move.

Jorginho currently only has a contract lasting until the summer, but he has an option to extend to 2025.

The player’s agent said in November that they won’t rush a decision on that extension, but Arsenal remain his priority.

“Everything is at a standstill,” Joao Santos said. “We’ll think about it after February. However, the priority remains Arsenal.”

Jorginho himself had told the media that he was hoping to eventually return to Italy, though he didn’t expect to do so immediately.

“I miss Italy and I would like to return, in fact, I will definitely return, but I don’t know if next summer will be the right time,” Jorginho said.

“I feel I still have things to do at Arsenal. It always takes time when you change teams, but the first six months at Arsenal were not negative, on the contrary.

“Obviously, it takes time to understand the mechanisms better, Arteta gives you a billion pieces of information but I’m very happy there.”

For the time being, Mikel Arteta certainly seems very pleased with the midfielder.

“It’s a game that I had in my mind and imagining [for him to play], and how much, in my opinion, we were going to need him,” Arteta said.

“It’s a team that doesn’t really allow you to put the fifth player in that front line the way they play.

“Jorgi’s a really intelligent player, his biggest quality is that he makes the people around him better, he connects everybody, and he was unbelievable. I think he was man of the match.

“He’s been in a lot of pain as well, because he has an issue that he’s been carrying for months.

“He didn’t want to stop, he’s been playing with that, he’s been training as the first one in and the last one out, and for all the kids, for everybody at the club, you want to look in the mirror at somebody, just look at him and how he behaves.”