Henrikh Mkhitaryan has joined the chorus of Manchester United names expressing their surprise at Chelsea’s decision to sell Nemanja Matic to their Premier League rivals.
Even at £40million Matic is already proving to be a shrewd acquisition for United, putting in a man of the match display in his new side’s Premier League opener, a 4-0 win over West Ham in which Paul Pogba was unshackled by his new midfield partner.
Speaking after the match Jose Mourinho pronounced himself surprised that a player of “special quality” had been made available by the champions and his comments were echoed by Mkhitaryan.
“Actually I am (shocked),” he said. “But at the same time I am very happy that we have got him.”
Mkhitaryan added praise for all three of Mourinho’s summer additions: “Matic does a big job on the pitch. He tries to recover all the balls. He defensively does a big job.
“[Romelu] Lukaku scored his goals and [Victor] Lindelof is still going to have time to show himself. So I want to say all the players are good signings and they are going to help us a lot.”
Matic’s absence is being as keenly felt at Chelsea as his presence is at Old Trafford. Chelsea face the prospect of deploying centre-back David Luiz in midfield when they travel to Wembley to face Tottenham on Sunday.
Tiemoue Bakayoko, Matic’s replacement from Monaco, has yet to begin training after undergoing a knee operation before his move whilst Cesc Fabregas is suspended after his red card in Saturday’s defeat to Burnley.
Chelsea also allowed Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Nathaniel Chalobah to depart in the summer, the former on loan to Crystal Palace and the latter in a £5m permanent switch to Watford after he refused to sign a new contract.
