We Lost A World-Class Player In Alexis Sanchez – Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger has insisted Arsenal have giving out one world-class player for another in swapping Alexis Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and backed the Armenian to return to his best form at the Emirates.

“We lose a world-class player and we gain a world-class player,” Wenger said about the swap. “How efficient will that be? That will be down to the performances of both players.

“Mkhitaryan has the qualities to integrate into our game and that is based a lot on movement and technical quality. I think he has the attributes, a good team attitude as well and I’m confident that it will work. He can play in all kinds of positions — on the flanks and he can play through the middle as well. I think he’s very versatile and it should help us to be very efficient going forward.”

“I hope yes. I have no doubt about his attitude, his commitment, his desire to do well,” Wenger said. “My challenge is to get him to express his talent completely, that we know is absolutely right because he has done extremely well, so he has a new challenge that we want to help him be successful in.”

“I said here that he’s 29 years old going onto 30 in 2018, and that it was maybe his last contract. Of course the financial aspect is important,” Wenger said. “He could combine both. I think he’s going to a great club and he gets a great contract, so you can understand that a professional player can combine both aspects.”

“Look, I don’t want to come back on the history of his negotiations, but maybe one day,” Wenger said. “Alexis is a great guy and has always been committed, did the negotiations go well or not well? It has never affected him and I would just like to remind you I took him to the hotel on the night before the Crystal Palace game and he was completely focused and ready to play the next day until I told him, look you can go home, the deal is over the line. So, that’s what he did.

“No matter how the negotiations went he was always focused on football.”