Alexis Sanchez's transfer to Manchester United doesn't make Arsenal a selling club, says Arsene Wenger

Wenger again defended the decision to allow Sanchez to join United

Alexis Sanchez completed his move to Manchester United on Monday (Getty)

Arsene Wenger says Arsenal have not become a selling club, despite the loss of Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United.

Speaking ahead of the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea on Wednesday night, Wenger again defended the decision to allow the forward to join a rival club, insisting that his replacement Henrikh Mkhitaryan would make Arsenal’s attack more “efficient” and “integrated”.

Mkhitaryan, who arrives at Arsenal as the other half of the Sanchez swap deal, is cup-tied for the Chelsea game. Wenger said that the attacking midfielder had “suffered a little bit” at Old Trafford, and would not guarantee that he would go straight into the Arsenal first team. “That depends a lot on the team performances, on his own fitness and performances in training,” he said.

Pressed on Mkhitaryan’s qualities, Wenger replied: “I would say quality of runs, quality of creativity. He can be very penetrating with his passing and with his runs. Technical stability, and experience as well. He knows what it is to fight at the top level.

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

Mkhitaryan appeared to be in the grip of a crisis of confidence during his last weeks at United, frozen out of the first team by Jose Mourinho and sold at the first possible opportunity. “He suffered a little bit from the competition he had there,” Wenger said. “ Overall, that’s his challenge and my challenge as well, to get him to express his standard. I have no doubt about his attitude, his commitment, his desire to do well.”

Yet the departure of Sanchez, at a point when Arsenal’s position in the elite of English football is more negotiable than it has been for some years, has led to some talk that this is no longer a club that can hold on to its best players.

“No, I am not worried about that,” Wenger said. “When players get to a certain age and they want to go, you have to respect that. When players have only a short contract [remaining], at some stage you have to make a decision. We were in a position where the player has no value in three or four months.

Sanchez left Arsenal after three-and-a-half years (Getty)

“Look, I don’t want to come back on the history of these negotiations. But Sanchez is a great guy, and has always been committed. Whether the negotiations went well or not, it never affected him. I’d just like to remind you that I took him to a hotel on the night before the Crystal Palace game [last Saturday], 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’. But he was always fully focused on football. He is a guy who loves football, and when he is on the football pitch, he always gave the maximum for Arsenal. He knows that to survive, you have to give absolutely your best.”

Aaron Ramsey and Nacho Monreal will have late fitness tests ahead of the Chelsea game. Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck are still a little way short of being ready. Meanwhile, Wenger confirmed that Arsenal were still “not close” to a deal with Borussia Dortmund for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.