Arsenal and Manchester United have found an agreement over a deal which will see Alexis Sanchez move to Old Trafford and Henrikh Mkhitaryan move to the Emirates.
Negotiations between the two clubs have been ongoing for the last couple of days, but it’s now been officially announced by both parties.
Sanchez joined Arsenal from Barcelona in the summer of 2014, and instantly became a fan favourite with his relentless energetic play and his quality in the final third. He was unwilling to sign a new contract, however, and although he could have been kept until the end of his deal, it was decided to move him on.
He departs with 80 goals and 46 assists from his 166 appearances, as well as two FA Cup final goals. He scored a belter against Aston Villa in 2015 as Arsenal fan out 4-0 winners, and opened the scoring in 2017 as the Gunners denied Chelsea the double with an epic 2-1 win against the odds.
Sanchez had grown disillusioned with life at the Emirates, and the club did try to sell him last summer but left it too late to bring in Thomas Lemar. It’s a situation that has been badly handled, and his departure to United leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Mkhitaryan, meanwhile, was sensational at Borussia Dortmund but has had a difficult time at United since his move there in 2016. He was not trusted by Jose Mourinho, who finds skilful, talented players not to his liking as Kevin de Bruyne and Mohamed Salah would testify, but leaves Manchester with 13 goals and 11 assists on his record.
Arsenal will be hoping he can reproduce his Bundesliga form, and a potential reunion with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang may well have played a part in that.
Speaking about his move to Arsenal, Mkhitaryan said: “I’m very happy that we could finish this deal and I’m very happy to be here. It’s a dream come true because I’ve always dreamed of playing for Arsenal. Now that I’m here, I’ll do my best for this club to create history.”
ALEXIS SANCHEZ ARSENAL STATS
Premier League
Appearances: 123
Goals: 60
Assists: 27
Champions League
Appearances: 24
Goals: 10
Assists: 11
FA Cup
Appearances: 14
Goals: 8
Assists:7
League Cup
Appearances: 4
Goals: 1
Assists: 1
Europa League
Appearances: 1
Goals: 1
Assists: 0
I, for one, am delighted that we signed David Schwimmer’s little brother.
I hope he ain’t a diver
So he must focus on backstroke then?
WTF Wenger, he has signed Ross from F.R.I.E.N.D.S!! #WengerOut
Out with the Coq and in with the Miki 😉 let the puns begin
It’s always good to take the Miki out of United.
PIVOTTTTT!!!!
My favourite comment in Arseblog so far… outstanding sir.
But what will we drag out now???
Well we’re now fully on the Aubameyang saga!
There’s still Evans…
Not sure that can qualify as a saga
Ozil. Wilshere. Aubameyang. Evans. We even have a few blockbusters lined up for summer- Ramsey, Welbeck, Reiss Nelson.
They kept that quite!
Yep this is quite unexpected
I still don’t believe it’s happened. I’m starting to doubt either player actually exists.
Existence is a matter of perception;
your doubt may make it so, for you.
Or would that be Not so?
THEY would be not so, that much is obvious.
Isn’t it?
or, bollocks
Or that, if it’s your flavor.
I see did coming nor
Not quite what I expected.
Glad this one is over.
I don’t hate Sanchez. He contributed a lot towards the club.
But he wasn’t performing well this season and his presence had a toxic effect on the team and the fanbase.
Lets hope we get Auba and finish in top 4 at least
Edit – I kinda liked Alexis’s post on Insta. Actually feel a bit emotional after reading.
Ah to the great first 3 years of his Arsenal career. :’)
I’ll always have a huge amount of respect for Sanchez for who he is as a player and for who I think he is as a person. He’s got an enormous amount of drive and passion on the pitch, and from what I gather a genuine heart of gold. If anything, the fact he didn’t do more with us is just a sign of the malaise currently gripping this club, that a player with his skill, desire and big-game mentality couldn’t drag us out of it. Says a lot about him that him travelling to United won’t make me hate… Read more »
He’s getting a reported £500,000 a week and a 4.5 year deal. That’s why he’s leaving !
@ Parisian Weetabix. Best comment on here. The rest is just smoke and mirrors.
Yeah nice parting sentiments from Alexis. https://www.instagram.com/alexis_officia1/?hl=en Always loved him as a player from my time in Chile when he was coming through the ranks. Sad to see him leave as he was our best player and it hurts to lose your best and even more to Manure and the man whose name shant be named. I would wish him luck, but given its Manure its not happening. We should have done WAY more to build a team around him and Ozil over the last few years instead of blind faith in underperforming players like Le Coq, Theo, Welbs, El… Read more »
“We should have done WAY more to build a team around him and Ozil”, Are you still on this again? At least we are making an effort by bringing in Mhikitarian (not sure if I spelled the name correctly) and Aubameyang. I believe in the summer we will bring in few more as well to bolster our defense and midfield.
Well we’ve just lost one of our best players so yeah… we are on ‘that’ again.
Yes Dave M loved the chest trap and how about the one where both Ozil and Alexis executed perfect no-look passes in the same game? On their day, we were unplayable, and smashed some of our biggest rivals.
Good luck to Alexis and good luck to Henrikh too, think he’s gonna love it at Arsenal.
Deluded. We have no choice but to bring in Mhykitarian. In fact he is forced upon us. If we don’t take this deal (and the negotiating team only boxed themselves in) we would have nothing and Alexis leaves anyway. The rebuild in the summer without CL would be much more difficult. We are not building anything. Its band aid. We have not built enough around our star players. This is deja vu to RVP leaving. Nothing has changed terribly since. We are fast slipping out of contention for even our minimum finish and the club isn’t adding what we need… Read more »
I think you are deluded. lol
“Thanks for every time you sing Alexis Sanchez Baby” really got me.
Then his next post says he is fulfilling his lifetime dream of playing for the best club in the world…
BYE THEN!
Blimey this came out of left field
And history you will make! Welcome to the Arsenal where you have a manager who’ll trust you and treat you like the way you should be.
The UTD vid to announce Alexis is the cringiest thing i’ve ever seen!
sanchez got a video & mkhitaryan got a gif
I for one can’t hate on Sanchez, he will be remembered as one the greats, its shame he left, but for me the key crucial thing right now, we are forever will be known as a selling club, no matter who we get. I won’t be surprised if ozil will leave in the summer. Sanchez in united shirt hurts and no one can deny it !!
He’s a very good player but hardly one of our greats
Totally agreed. Sanchez was brillant for AFC. And it’s not the same as R*P…..
He won’t be remembered as one of our greats. Adams, Bergkamp, Brady, Wright, Pires, Henry… Not even close!!
BOTH Alexis and RVP only ever gave 110% I know people hate RVP but you could see he was unconvinced by our future when Wenger subbed off the then young Ox early, who was our best performer in a particular match we were struggling in. He was caught mouthing in front of camera to the bench “no no no” He was right because we haven’t won the title . He went to United and won it the next year. Yes he is a Judas for doing that and he tainted a legacy which would have been bigger than that medal… Read more »
Remember Real Madrid had Higuain,Ozil, Di Maria, James Rodriguez, Alonso and Morata and sold them up. Barca had Dani Alvez and Neymar and still sold them when they didn’t want to sign new contracts. So, does that make them selling clubs? In Sanchez and Ozil case I don’t blame the club one bit. Sanchez wanted to leave so Arsenal had no choice, they tried to give him and improved deal he turned down or are you suggesting by any means that Arsenal should have paid him the $400K he wanted? I know it’s not my money but I wouldn’t pay… Read more »
First of all, every single one of those Real and Barca players was sold (loaned in the case James) to a club outside Spain. Never to a league rival. Second, saying this move is all about money is delusional. Like Arseblog said that’s just a “defense mechanism”. Robert Pires got it exactly right – both Ozil and Sanchez expressed frustration that the club had not built on their signings and challenged for the big prizes. For god’s sake that’s the same thing most people on this site have been saying for five years. Fixate on giving the ball away if… Read more »
Man but this hurts.
It shouldn’t…
Didn’t want to play for us.. I feel pretty pleased tbh, just want to look onwards and upwards with players who want to be at our club!
Welcome to the gunners Henrikh.
It sounds petty, but i wish Alexis nothing but bad luck as long as he stays in that shithole working for that Portuguese wankbag
Hope he spares us the hypocritical letter to fans.
Letter to “you guys”
Too late, the letter is out there already. He even compares his leaving to that of Henry
Only in saying “it’s for the same reason”. He’s not trying to put himself on the same plane in the Arsenal Pantheon.
I’m happy that if he wanted out it is done and we did get a good player in Mkhitaryan when we could have had nothing.
Amen to that
Blogs, you should have swapped the heads on that pic.
Good piece of business, not bad at all.
Good luck Atom and Humber. Enjoy your cold, wet walks.
Well he had a nice little “justification” on his instagram by citing a conversation with henry…well Alexis is just that Man U number 7 and it’s all about Mkhitaryan now!
Let’s not forget that whatever way you look at this – and it was plainly preferable to letting him walk for nothing this May – Arsenal have right royally screwed this up. A textbook example of ‘How not to do it’ – starting from last May.
Not sure why this is being disliked, do people really think we’ve managed this well on the whole? I think Mkhi is a good player but let’s be real, we’re hardly making this swap by choice. We’ve applied a bandaid after shooting ourselves in the foot, and not for the first time!
I guess some of us think that he was never going to sign, regardless of what Arsenal offered because City was going to offer more. In then end City could not even afford him. Lucky for us, United saw value where City saw a free move in the summer. And instead of moaning, we are just happy that a quality player came in. But you do it your way.
They knew he was not going to sign before summer. We all did. The right way to do it would have been to acquire and work in a replacement early in the summer window rather than leaving it all until the end of the window and having it all fall apart. But that would have required putting money forward rather than just reacting in a break-even fashion. This is about as fortunate of a turn as we could have hoped for given the situation, getting a quality player like Mkhi in. Now we need Auba as well to show the… Read more »
He would never have signed ! Did you see the deal he has. Too much for City !
Shhhh! you can’t say that!
This is a fantastic piece of business and the end result of an ideal situation.
Don’t you know? Alexis was bad bad bad, Mikhywhatshisname is good good good.
(in any other line of business, Wenger would have been sacked on the spot, at Arsenal he’d probably get his contract extended)
We missed such a great opportunity to sort this our properly. Last season was so brutal from January onwards, the Bayern defeats were probably the worst it’s been in a decade, but the manager and the coach fought back, and by May we were playing well enough to feel good about the FA Cup even though City and Chelsea were in the way. I said to my mate on the day of the City semi-final, “All we’ve got to do is sit tight, play compact, and with Alexis we’ll have a chance.” The team came through, he came through. And… Read more »
They couldn’t really sell in the summer because he only wanted to go to manchester (city at that stage) and nobody knew that we would be so far behind them. There would have been riots about selling our best player to a rival. It’s a mess, but I think we’ve come out of it as well as we possibly could, with a good player coming in. Thanks to mounino, of all people!
This part is super important to me:
Q: “You’re a versatile attacking midfielder – but what’s your favoured position?”
A: “All over the pitch! It doesn’t matter exactly where. I don’t stay in one position, I always try to move to create space to [support] my team-mates. I’m everywhere!”
That sounds very Ozil-esque, with the exception that Ozil typically mentions that he prefers a central role
“anywhere on the pitch that does not involve any defensive duties whatsoever”
Well, our coach also likes players to play all over the pitch. Welcome to your stint as a left sided cb in a back 3.
OK! Bosscielny, I’m still laughing at that one
And here’s to you Mikhitaryan
We love you more than Mourinho – ohhhh
This!!!
Not exactly a high bar you’re setting there
shit chant, we love Sp*rs more then we love Mourinho so does that mean Spurs > Mhki??
I’m just glad it’s over.
Is this a straight swap or is there any cash involved? Not that it really matters either way. Done well considering the situation we’d put ourselves in.
Voice in my head says Man U had to pay off Mino Ratola, so probably a swap +20M.
I hit the third floor today. Finally an arsenal player I almost share a birthday with????
I share my birthday with Adebayor – boo – and Monreal – yeah.
We’ are losing one of our top assets. We are gaining a player low on confidence into a fragile team. Where we play him remains to be seen. You feel Wenger played almost a midfield diamond to accommodate potentially Aubameyang coming in so Mhykitarian may play right of midfield tucked in. It doesn’t entirely balance out our right and give us the width we need with Iwobi and Nelson (both young currently the only real wide options. Otherwise the fullbacks have to come up to make the difference which may have consequence to space behind them. OTOH Mhykitarian maybe might… Read more »
Mate turn it in.
cut him some slack, he did not even mention Mahrez!
At least I didn’t have to read to check lol
Santori mate I thought I was bad, you gotta edit your posts down and use paragraphs because you usually have good points but it’s too hard to read.
Yeah awesome Band Aid is the marketing word.
You’ve said the same stuff or similar over and over
tl;dr
Glad this is over. I am thankful for Alexis’s contribution to Arsenal. However, I am really looking forward to the first hissy fit he throws and Jose’s reaction
I share your sentiment. While some might have mixed feelings about this one (only time will tell), it’s nevertheless great to see Arsenal actually completing any piece of transfer business (not least a drawn out saga like this one which involves the cuntiest super agent in the world plus it’s not even Jan 30)
Now let’s go get Auba!
Great to have another Scorpion King
Good business imo. Have to hope we can crack back in the top 4 and win the Europa now
Here’s wishing you all the best in your future endeavours, Sanchez.
Warm regards
“…in your future endeavours with Chile…”
I fixed it for you.
#WelcomeMkhiMcMkhFace
We can have all the attacking talent we want up front but until we get a Gilberto Silva like figure in midfield to play alongside Jack we just won’t be any good. A top quality cb and goalkeeper then for next season and we’ll be pretty close to a complete team that will compete for the league.
Always one or two short.. ?
Sanchez was never going to stay on at AFC. Under the circumstances I think AFC did quite well to get HM rather than get nowt in a few months time. I feel quite positive about it overall especially if PEA joins and MO stays.
If Maureen finds skilful, talented players not to his liking, hopefully Alexis will give him ulcers.
Those turnovers surely will!
Great 🙂
Welcome, HM!
Great piece of business both ways for us, offload sanchez and bring in Mikhi.
Hope people see the greater picture here.
Aubameyang is (if all goes well) replacement for sanchez.
Mikhi is for the potentially departing Ozil
ideally we need another midfielder and defender (ideal World) but this all makes our summer window a lot easier.
Upwards and onwards…Nobody bigger than the Arsenal !
Why are the majority of posts about Alexis?
Move on people, there’s 2 players involved and one now plays for The Arsenal.
People find it easier to talk about those they are emotionally invested into who gave their best back.
Mkhi is an arsenal player. But an extremely underwhelming signing at this point.
Hope he does a Paulinho and comes good
well Sammy, youre going to have to get used to be underwhelmed because I think the people you want us to sign we simply can’t afford
Best post so far. For whatever reason Sanchez is a Yanited player now and Miki’s a Gooner. This means Miki’s top man and Sanchez isn’t. Simples
I know some of you think he’s a no-good criminal ex-Farc mercenary whose love for dogs was just a cover-up for the cat cemetery in his basement but some of us love what the guy did for the club.
Like Theo and Francis Coquelin, he deserves a few kind words on his way out the door. You wanted him gone, he’s gone. Begrudging people sending him off is a little bit petty.
Now it is the time to check him out on Youtube!
Goodbye alexis. We loved having you here.
80 goals and 46 assists from his 166 appearances – wow!
Some big shoes to fill. Hope Mkhi is a good at football for us, as his agent Raiola has been to him in getting him a pay rise on the back off the time at ManU!
Our hierarchy are trying the hardest to bring in Aubameyang. Hope that happens and the two new arrivals are able to recreate the magic from the BVB days, scoring goals for fun with Ozil and Lacazett.
Adios Sanchez. Mostly, thanks for the memories.
Can’t help it – May you rot at Manchester United.
And he promptly and incorrectly calls that northern pile of bollocks the biggest team in the world. In that sentence, like the other little boy who went there, has wiped away any good he ever did for us. Dick.
Oooof! Those Alexis stats. Pretty impressive after all.
Welcome to the Mickey Mouse Club Mkhi!
Hope Özil stays but have a feeling that this was done having Mkhi as his successor in mind…
Arsenal fans- “It’s our dream come true because we’ve always dreamed of getting a player as part of our customary-losing-our-best-player-to-competitors transfers! Now that he’s here….we’ll do our best to correctly pronounce his name, judge him super harshly and create history by coming up with a song that has the word Mkhitaryan in it”
Still feel we got the short end of the stick on this deal.
We got an Arsenal player. They got a united player. Unlucky for them !!
I think we did OK from where we stand now. There was no way Alexis was re-signing for us. So what we’re really selling here is only 4.5ish months of Alexis Sanchez.
If your argument is that we screwed up last summer and before, I’d agree. But this seems at least acceptable.
Welcome to the Arsenal, Mickitaryan. I saw him play a lot during his time at Dortmund, and to my eyes he is an updated, two-footed, more robust version of Robert Pires, but with even more goals and assists in his repertoire. If he can rediscover his Dortmund form for Arsenal, we will have one hell of a player on our hands. Ps: RIP Jimmy Armfield. When he worked as a football summariser in the radio commentary box for the BBC Sports team – over many years – he was essential listening. He had forgotten more than most of the current… Read more »
Glad this saga is over.
Can’t blame Alexis for wanting to get an upgrade in pretty much every possible way…
Can’t say I’m thrilled about getting that out of shape, unmployed looking crybaby.
And before you start with that whole ‘Mourinho ruined Salah and KDB!@#’, just remember that they were 22 at most whie Mikhi was 27 and that they came from leagues and teams who are inferior to the German one.
you obviously don’t watch football outside of England if you think Dortmund when he was playing there was inferior…
So we swop a player who has been brilliant in the Premier League for a player who has been a total flop. No doubt Wenger’s magic dust will turn everthing around but as far as transfers are concerned, we’re the joke of the footballing world!
There’s reports of a 20million fee too, is that correct???
No
I know every player says stuff like that when they join a new team but I genuinely enjoyed reading them words..is Alexis that passionate about united? Doubt it. Bring in Aubameyang and a defender and I’m a happy gooner
It may leave a bitter taste for some, but personally I do not give a fuck! Sanchez ended up leaving us for footballing reasons, but he did not choose ManUre for footballing reasons – if it was football he would have taken the lesser wage form City. Anyway, its over, cheers, bye.. Funny, I usually feel something when a player leaves, but I really don’t with Sanchez. Looking froward to seeing where Mkhitaryan is going to fit in. Think we got a good deal in the end after getting ourselves into a mess to be honest, seeing as we could… Read more »
His leaving statement just underlined to me why I’m happy to see the back of him. Personal highlights: “There are people (former club players) who have spoken with no knowledge of what happens inside the club and cause damage.” i.e. Martin Keown dropping truth bombs about the money-grabbing so and so. “I must say I always gave 100%, until the last day” – Calling BS there mate. You were rubbish this season and I guarantee you’ll suddenly be playing a lot better now. “I remember today, a conversation I had with Henry, a historic Arsenal player, who changed club for… Read more »
In order to cement the impression that this is an equal swap of players, does Mkhitaryan insist on having “Henrikh” on the back of his shirt?
No, he’s a grown up.
Welcome Miki to Arsenal, I’m sure he will give use great 4 years. I would propose new transfer policy from now on signed establish players 27 years and above old so the dont fuck us and leave in their peak years bot that alexis is in his peak years he is in his 30ties but, there are cases like cesc,rvp,hleb,nasri etc who fucked us and leave us at their peak years. Auba next in his peak years along with miki and to top that the new contracts signed by wilshere which he will sign 100% and ozil 90% if ozil… Read more »
i just saw the 2 minute interview clip on Arsenal.com and i must, this man looks sad to be coming to Arsenal, perhaps given the circumstances of his arrival. I hope he gets over this very quickly and perform. The fans have your back 100%. Anyone else here excited to see this lad play?
Feel sad for Mkhi, even we didn’t bother to hype hia signing, the photos seems depressed compared to Alexis, poor Mkhi.
I don’t think the photos were at all depressed, he actually looked a lot happier than I expected, and he is a good player. Now he won’t have moanino bringing him down at every opportunity I think he might surprise. And seems to be extremely popular with his ex-teammates.
I couldn’t care less about the photos, frankly…