Henrikh Mkhitaryan Insists He Was Not a Part of Alexis Sanchez Deal & Reveals Why He Came to Arsenal

Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has insisted that his move from Manchester United to north London was not linked to Alexis Sanchez's move in the opposition direction.

The Armenian was very keen to stress this in an interview with FourFourTwo, saying he wants 'everyone to understand' that the players switched clubs in separate deals.

The two players were embroiled in the biggest transfer saga of the January window, with rumours of interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich floating around alongside huge rumours of a move to Manchester City.

However, Manchester United took everybody by surprise as they blew their city rivals out of the water with a superior contract offer. Mkhitaryan then made the move from United to Arsenal and it was widely reported that the two players has swapped clubs as part of the same deal.

The 29-year-old is adamant that he and Sanchez are 'different' in several aspects and, on the swap deal, insisted 'it's not true'.

"I didn’t come here to replace anyone," Mkhitaryan said.

"Everyone keeps saying that I’ve been part of a deal for Alexis Sanchez but it’s not true because he was running down his contract. If he didn’t choose to come to Manchester United, he would have stayed at Arsenal until the summer.

"Everything was up to me. I’m not saying I was important in this aspect but I want everyone to understand I wasn’t made part of the deal for Alexis Sanchez.

"We’re different players, we’re different characters, we have different abilities and skills. When I heard I could swap Manchester United for Arsenal, I said ‘yes I want to do that.’

"I wasn’t evening thinking twice or thinking that maybe I don’t have to go. I said ‘no I want to go. I want to have more playing time. I want to enjoy playing attacking, offensive football’. I made the right decision coming here."