He said: "Mathieu could answer the question on his future much better than I could. At the moment, we have no news from him but, at the latest, we expect it to be decided over the weekend.
"He tells me he wants to stay and I want him to stay, but it will be down to numbers as well and we want to respect our wage structure. It is also important to keep the core of the team together."
Wenger, meanwhile, admitted he was left completely in the dark over Keith Edelman's departure as managing director yesterday after an eight-year stint.
Edelman - who claimed he was leaving to seek a new challenge - has been replaced on a short-term basis by director Ken Friar, a close ally of Wenger.
The Frenchman insists his day-today business will not be affected but the fact he was not told of Edelman's impending departure is surprising, given the manager is a non-executive director and is generally kept informed of boardroom business.
He said: "It came as a complete surprise to me because he didn't inform me he was leaving.
"But I don't think it will change much in terms of the footballing side of things. The money available won't change either.
"I think the stability will remain. Ken Friar has already worked with me on the contracts and he will replace Keith for the coming weeks so I don't think it will be a major change for me."
