Alexis Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the biggest ‘swap’ deal in English football since Ashley Cole quit Arsenal to join Chelsea in August 2006 with William Gallas going in the opposite direction. Alexis Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the biggest ‘swap’ deal in English football since Ashley Cole quit Arsenal to join Chelsea in August 2006 with William Gallas going in the opposite direction. Given he is also, at 29, only a month younger than Sanchez then it is not as if Arsenal are buying potential. They won the last head-to-head also involving Arsenal and City when they bought Robin van Persie back in 2012. However the manner of Arsenal’s sale of Cole 12 years ago felt like the moment when they became a selling club.

Source: Irish Independent January 23, 2018 16:30 UTC