London: Since Alexis Sanchez’s transfer to Manchester United was confirmed, there has not been a single tweet from one of his former Arsenal teammates to wish him well or say what a pleasure it was to play alongside him. These guys and this club are not noted for their reticence on the social media platform. Sometimes, it is what is left unsaid that makes the point.
Arsene Wenger went the other way. The manager had something to get off his chest and he dived right in.
Arsenal have welcome Henrikh Mkhitaryan to their club; the Armenian joined from United in a straight swap for Sanchez and must wait until next Tuesday to make his Arsenal debut — at Swansea City in the Premier League.
The pressure will be on him to provide positivity from the off.
If things had worked out differently, Mkhitaryan would have become an Arsenal player in the summer of 2016.
“I met him and we were close at the time but, in the end, it didn’t work,” Wenger said. The attacking midfielder would leave Borussia Dortmund for United.
Wenger has said many times that Arsenal cannot compete for players — on a financial level — with either Manchester club.
Mkhitaryan struggled under Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford and Wenger said that the challenge for him would be to put the psychological scars behind him — in the same way that Liverpool’s Mohammad Salah and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne have done. Both of them struggled under Mourinho at Chelsea.
“You worry about how much it has affected him but it’s a new chance for him and that’s what you want in life,” Wenger said. “With his quality, I’m sure that he will take it. I might have to analyse with him how it went [at United], what we can do, how can we help him?”
It is clear that Mkhitaryan is no like-for-like Sanchez replacement and Wenger raised the prospect of him filling the midfield boots of the long-term injury victim Santi Cazorla. “Personally, I see him first wide but I’m thinking as well that there is the possibility for him to play through the middle, Wenger said. “As a No. 10? Or even deeper.”
