Premier League: Manchester United in pole position to sign Alexis Sanchez

Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez seems to be heading towards Old Trafford after having been close to a transfer to current Premier League leaders Manchester City last summer. Alexis Sanchez will leave Arsenal sooner rather than later as his contract runs out at the end of the season and the Gunners want to avoid losing him on a free transfer. Manchester City are willing to pay around 20 million pounds for the Chilean forward, while Manchester United are ready to meet Arsenal's demands of 35 million pounds. Moreover, Alexis Sanchez would want around 18 million pounds per year from his new club and Manchester City are not willing to pay him more than Kevin De Bruyne for instance. Also, Arsenal are interested to make Manchester United midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan a part of the deal as Arsene Wenger is a big fan of the Armenian player. Manchester City had agreed a deal worth 60 million pounds for Sanchez last summer but the transfer fell through after Arsenal were unable to secure the move of Thomas Lemar from AS Monaco. Arsenal lost 2-1 at Bournemouth on Sunday and Arsene Wenger left Alexis Sanchez out of the match squad as he admitted the Chilean forward was set to leave the club: "It could happen today or tomorrow or not at all. That's why I didn't want to travel with him today for him to go somewhere else. Alexis would have played but this is a difficult period for him. He has always been committed until now. He could have moved today or yesterday or not, but it will be decided in the next 48 hours. He is on standby so I decided not to bring him today. It wasn't that he didn't want to play." Alexis Sanchez is now 2/5 at SkyBet to join Manchester United during the January transfer window.