Henrikh finds a
Wenger aims to sign up top guns
are bidding to tie the pair down on much longer deals.
It is crunch time for Arsenal with six further players, including Kieran Gibbs, Olivier Giroud, the on-loan Jack Wilshere and Per Mertesacker out of contract by the end of the 2017-18 season.
Wenger admits it will be a tough time, even if the situations with Sanchez and Ozil have taken centre stage.
“We have a lot of work to do but you are only interested in two cases,” he said. “We have started talking to Ox. We’ve started with Santi as well and will certainly extend with him. We will work with Giroud too, and on many players.”
Wenger insists that no player is bigger than Arsenal and will not be held to ransom, even though the club is in a far stronger financial position than when they sold Robin van Persie to Manchester United in 2012, a year before his contract expired.
“Arsenal are a big club,” said Wenger. “It is not one or two players who will make the difference to the club.
“The importance is that today we are in a financial position that is strong. That was not the case before. That means we are in a position where we can plan our future, and do what we want to do.
“What is important is always to take care of the values and the identity of the club, and not to depend too much on one or two players. The history of Arsenal is bigger than that.”
Contract talks with Sanchez and Ozil have slowed due to their wage demands but Wenger has suggested he would be unwilling to sell, and thus allow the pair to leave for nothing in 2018.
“Eighteen months is a long time in football,” he said. “I can’t give any assurances. But they have 18 months and are completely committed.
“Beyond that we will try to extend their contracts. That’s a normal part of negotiating. They will stay for 18 months and hopefully much longer.” HENRIKH Mkhitaryan just loves Ukraine and Odessa in particular.
It was in this war-torn country that the Armenian midfielder first came to the attention of Europe’s super powers. And the last time he played in Odessa he scored his first hat-trick for Shakhtar Donetsk.
Last night Mkhitaryan netted his first goal for Manchester United in the city on the edge of the Black Sea as they eased into the Europa League knockout stages.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic added the second near the end – his 13th of the season – to put a big smile on Jose Mourinho’s face after United’s recent frustrations in the Premier League.
After a difficult start to the season following his £26 million signing from Borussia Dortmund, Mkhitaryan has really started to look like the man who lit up the Bundesliga last season in recent games.
He has created a few goals but has been desperate for his first. When it came three minutes into the second half it was worth the wait.
When Marcos Rojo won possession from Oleksandr Karavaev on the half-way line, Mkhitaryan collected the loose ball and went on a surging run into the heart of the Zorya defence.
With Wayne Rooney’s decoy run helping to distract the defence, Mkhitaryan just kept going, flicked the ball through the legs of Rafael Forster, before keeping his cool to place a low shot past Igor Levchenko and into the far corner of the net.
It was the sort of goal that became his trademark in Dortmund and Donetsk and the continuing upward spiral in his form augurs well.
So does Ibrahimovic’s hunger for goals. After a lean run, the veteran Swede has rediscovered his touch with some style in recent games.
He wrapped up the victory three minutes from time, running on to Paul Pogba’s superb first-time pass to slide his shot past Levchenko. IN ODESSA FAN CLUB: Pochettino has refused to join in the criticism of Mourinho JOSE MOURINHO sent his players on a bizarre late-night bus ride across London hours before the joint biggest hammering of his career, it has emerged. Was December 31, 2014 the night the Special One lost his mojo? Tottenham 5 Chelsea 3 is a scoreline which still raises a smile from Spurs fans as they await Sunday’s first meeting with Mourinho since his move to Manchester United. Harry Kane scored twice that night as Tottenham came from a goal down to lead 4-1 inside 52 minutes. For Mourinho, though, it seems to have marked the Matthew beginning of a downturn in his hold over his Premier League rivals.
Since his return to English football in 2013 the Chelsea manager had been unbeaten in 15 games against the other ‘big six’ sides – Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham. In 13 games since, for Chelsea and United, Mourinho has won just twice.
Digging further into the circumstances of this dramatic change reveals that Mourinho was at his most