Henrikh Mkhitaryan is discussing the final details with Arsenal before agreeing a deal with the club that will also enable Alexis Sánchez to join Manchester United.
No last-minute glitches are expected with the Armenian keen to rekindle his career in London after a disappointing spell in the north of England since joining United in the summer of 2016, and he has been in text contact with José Mourinho on Saturday.
Mourinho claimed on Friday he was “calmly waiting for news” on the negotiations having confirmed Mkhitaryan would not play against Burnley on Saturday due to his role in the possible swap.
“The idea of the transfer market in mid-season, normally I say that is to help clubs that didn’t work well in the summer,” Mourinho said. “I think that’s for me the point of the January transfer window: to help the clubs that didn’t work well in the summer and they feel they have to do something in January to help what they didn’t do well before.
“It’s because of that we don’t like to do [transfers] in January because it shows that we didn’t give our best, we didn’t try our best and we don’t like to do it. But if you have the chance to do [something for] some special players, some player in special circumstances, some player that you [try to] do in the summer and you have the chance to do it now, that’s a special situation and you try to do it.”