The Gunners are understood to have rejected one cut-price £27million offer, but Barca are expected to return with an improved deal - offering a player exchange as a sweetener - for the Spain midfielder.

Speaking today at a football campus in Tordera, Spain, the 24-year-old was quoted as saying in AS: "I'm calm and I am optimistic. I have nothing to say and there is nothing to speak of.

Asensio's Screamer Vs FC Barcelona
Asensio's Screamer Vs FC Barcelona
In one of Real Madrid's most outstanding performances at the Camp Nou, Los Blancos beat FC Barcelona 3-1 in the Spanish Supercup. Real were leading 2-1 after Cristiano Ronaldo's 80th minute goal, but just before the final whistle, we sealed the win with this beautiful Marco Asensio strike.
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"If something happens, it is because it has to happen.

"For my part, I've begun to get in shape, which is what I have to do."

He added: "If a player is on the market it is because the club does not want him. I have no problems."

Arsenal have yet to make any official comment, as they did last summer, on reports regarding a return to the Nou Camp for Fabregas.

The World Cup winner is continually linked with a move back to his boyhood club during every transfer window.

Last summer, the Gunners rejected a £30million offer for their inspirational skipper.

However, with Fabregas appearing more determined to rejoin the club he left as a teenager in 2003, Arsenal are said to be ready to allow the deal to go through, if the European champions improve their £27million bid.

BBC Sport earlier this week quoted a senior Arsenal official as saying: "The offer was made formally in writing to our chief executive (Ivan Gazidis), and we said no straight away."

When asked if the club expected an improved offer this week, the source added: "Possibly yes, and if it's enough then I expect we'll have to sell."