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[Photo] Attacker in London to undergo medical as Arsenal agree terms for 2nd signing

By mac14 on January 21, 2018

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is in London to undergo his medical with Arsenal and complete his move from Manchester United as part of a swap deal with Alexis Sanchez.

We’ve been thrashing out terms with the Armenian international and his agent Mino Raiola over the past week and a breakthrough was finally reached on Friday night.

Sanchez said goodbye to his team mates and left our team hotel en route to Manchester where he’s expected to undergo his medical with United this afternoon.

The Chilean international had agreed terms with United last weekend and had been waiting for the go-ahead to leave once we’d come to an agreement with Mkhitaryan’s camp.

It looks like the swap deal is now on the verge of completion as Mkhitaryan was spotted leaving a London hotel on Saturday night by Sky Sports journalist Bryan Swanson.

He tweeted this picture:

Just met Henrikh Mkhitaryan outside hotel in central london. Big smile when asked about him nearly joining Arsenal! He’s out with Mino Raiola. Footage on #SSN shortly #AFC pic.twitter.com/9NZ4HMsh6k

— Bryan Swanson (@skysports_bryan) January 20, 2018

The Mirror claim Mkhitaryan is due to undergo his medical this afternoon before signing a long-term contract with Arsenal while Sanchez is also set to have his medical with United.

The newspaper says no money will change hands and it will be a straight swap deal. I’ve seen some fans question this as they expected us to take a fee as well but I just don’t understand this viewpoint.

Sanchez’s value to us will be £0 as of February 1st and United could sign him on a free in June. Whereas Mkhitaryan still has over 2 years left on his contract and is worth easily £35m in today’s market so I think we’re getting a very good deal.

However, the swap deal won’t be official until Monday as the two players need to have their work permits ratified which can only be done on a working day of the week.

So barring any late complications, we should have Mkhitaryan wrapped-up tomorrow and he’ll become our second signing of the January window following the arrival of Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos.