Read what Arsene Wenger had to say on new signing Henrik Mkhitaryan, the outgoing Alexis Sanchez, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Chelsea team news and much more.

On the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Chelsea at the Emirates on Wednesday evening

It’s an important game. We want to get to the final. The two teams know each very well. The second leg will certainly be more open, it should be much spectacular than the first one...because at some stage the teams will have to open up.

Strength and motivation on the day will be a decider.

Injury news

We might have [Aaron] Ramsey back, he has a test. We have uncertainty over [Nacho] Monreal. He has a test. [Olivier] Giroud and [Danny] Welbeck are still a fraction short.

On signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

At the moment we are not close to signing [Auba]. He is one of our possible movements but he there are others. [Am I confident of signing him?] Confident, I don’t know. At the moment we are not close to doing any deals with him or anybody else.

On new signing Henrik Mkhitaryan

He can bring quality of creativity, technical stability and experience. Overall we lose a world class player and gain a world class player. [HM] has the qualities to integrate into our game. He has a good team attitude. He’s very versatile. [He and Mesut Ozil] can play together. You look at players what can they give to the team. Good players can always play together. He can play in all kinds of positions. He is very versatile and it should help us going forward.

Will Mkhitaryan slot straight in?

It depends on the team’s performance. His performance in training as well.

On Alexis Sanchez

Sanchez is a great guy and has always been committed. He goes to a great club and has a great contract. I have no doubt about his attitude. He suffered a bit with the competition he had there. That his challenge and my challenge to get that out here.

Did Sanchez leave Arsenal because he was offered more money?

He is 29 years old, it is maybe his last contract. Financially it is important. He could combine both. He’s going to a great club.

Are you worried about Arsenal being known as a selling club

No, I’m not worried about that. When players get to a certain age and want to go you have to respect that. We have to respect certain financial plans. We worked very hard to become richer, after that we have to spend our money the most intelligent way we can. [You need] players who care about the club so it’s about values not millions.