Henrikh Mkhitaryan to make Arsenal debut but Arsene Wenger admits he is unsure where he will play

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Henrikh Mkhitaryan is set to make his Arsenal debut on Tuesday night as Arsenal travel across the Severn Bridge to face the Premier League basement club Swansea City.

The Armenian has been given a week to settle in at his new club having been ineligible for the EFL Cup semi-final second leg last week and Arsenal not having an FA Cup fixture on the weekend, but is expected to finally pull on his new No 7 shirt at the Liberty Stadium.

With Alexis Sanchez replacing Mkhitaryan at Manchester United, the position to the left of the Gunners’ attack is open but Wenger has revealed he will not necessarily play there and could instead fill the role vacated by the injured Santi Cazorla.

“I think Mkhitaryan can play in all positions in midfield, box to box, certainly not a defensive role, holding player no but all the other positions are not out of reach,” Wenger said. “Until now he has played in a wide role but he can certainly absorb that role in a kind of winger/playmaker. I don’t rule it out for him to become a box to box player.”

He also said that the intention is to play Mkhitaryan alongside fellow playmaker Mesut Ozil, who is out of contract at the end of the season, although Wenger is hopeful the German will be convinced to stay.

“Our intention is we signed Mkhitaryan on a longer contract than we had with Sanchez,” he added. “Our intention is to keep Ozil at the club and hopefully we will manage to do that soon.”

Swansea beat Liverpool FC last time out in the Premier League with a surprise 1-0 win at the Liberty and Wenger is wary about the threat they pose, despite sitting bottom of the Premier League.

“When you don’t win you are criticised. I think Liverpool tried. What is a good warning for us is that Liverpool are an attacking team, you cannot criticise them for not attacking. They are very dangerous going forward and they did not manage to score against Swansea. That is a good warning sign for us that we have to produce an absolute total offensive performance.

“It is tougher because when you look at the results compared to 10 years ago teams are ready to fight for 90 minutes and be ready to organised for 90 minutes. There is no weak moments in their organisation. You see more teams who have 30 per cent possession who win games, you saw it again Swansea v Liverpool. We see that more and more.”