Henrikh Mkhitaryan may well have an obligation to buy in his loan contract with AS Roma, despite reports to the contrary.

Mkhitaryan joined AS Roma on a season-long loan on deadline day, with a €3m loan fee being paid to the Gunners as well as the Armenian international’s wages being covered for the year.

Before the deal went through, there were differing reports about whether it would contain an option or obligation to buy, with TMW and Fabrizio Romano claiming in Italy there would be, whilst English reporters David Ornstein and Sam Dean said there wouldn’t.

Neither Roma nor Arsenal mentioned anything on the subject, which suggested there wasn’t a clause to mention.

A day later, however, The Times write that Roma do have an obligation to buy, which is only activated if Mkhitaryan plays 25 matches.

It’s hard to know which side to believe at this point, and we may just have to wait for the player to either hit 25 appearances or to confirm the existence of the clause himself.

Given Arsenal included a 25-match clause in David Ospina’s loan to Napoli last season, they definitely have a history with this sort of thing. I wouldn’t rule anything out at this stage.