Arsene Wenger admits Arsenal lost a world class player when Alexis Sanchez moved to Manchester United, but says they’ve gained one in return in Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Speaking in his pre-Chelsea press conference, Wenger took a lot of questions on Arsenal’s transfer activity. On Monday night, the Gunners confirmed the swap deal of Sanchez for Mkhitaryan. The manager thinks the club came out of the deal well, arguing: “Overall we lose a world class player and gain a world class player.

“It will be down to the performances of the players. I’m confident it will work, he can play in all kinds of positions. He is very versatile.”

That versatility is particularly important when trying to replace a player like Sanchez. Although the Chilean mostly played on the left wing, he’d often roam freely around the field. Mkhitaryan can play on the left, he can play on the right, and he can drop deep too. Hopefully that means he can pick up the slack pretty well, and bring his own qualities to the pitch.

As Wenger says, it’s all down to the performances of the players now. On paper, Alexis Sanchez, Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Özil made Arsenal a dangerous proposition. Yet Arsenal are soundly sixth in the table, because the trio never got going in matches.

Plus, the Gunners need to do a bit of work to rebuild Mkhitaryan’s confidence, after Mourinho’s attempts to break it. The Armenian played 90 minutes in the league just three times for Manchester United. With any luck we’ll see a changed player when the 29-year-old makes his debut for Arsenal.