Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan's shirt number revealed after transfer to Arsenal

The 29-year-old signed a three-and-a-half year deal with the Gunners on Monday

Tuesday 23 January 2018 14:05 GMT
Comments
Premier League transfer round-up: Latest deals from the January window

Henrikh Mkhitaryan will wear the No 7 shirt vacated by Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal.

The Armenian completed his protracted move to the Emirates with the Chilean heading the opposite way to Old Trafford.

The 29-year-old signed a three-and-a-half year deal with the Gunners and will wear the number left free by Sanchez.

Mkhitaryah joins after an up and down 18-month spell with the Red Devils which saw him play an instrumental role in the club's Europa League win but also fall drastically out of favour under Jose Mourinho this term.

Speaking about his move he 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.”

Arsene Wenger was asked about his newest signing in his morning press conference on Tuesday.

“I believe we lose a world class player and gain a world class player,” Wenger said. “They [Mesut Ozil and Mkhitaryan] can play together. How efficient will that work? It will be down to the qualities of both players.

“Mkhitaryan has the qualities to integrate into our game. He has a good team attitude. He’s very versatile. He can play in all kinds of positions. He is very versatile and it should help us going forward.

“Henrikh can bring quality of creativity, technical stability and experience.”

Mkhitaryan joined Arsenal on Monday (Getty)

“I have no doubt about his attitude,” Wenger added. “He suffered a bit with the competition he had there [United]. I will know how much [it affected his confidence] over the next few weeks. That his challenge and my challenge to get that out here.

When asked about whether Mkhitaryan will go straight into the Arsenal first team: “It depends on the team’s performance. His performance in training as well.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in