Arsenal reveal strange UEFA rule will affect new signing from January
Arsenal have confirmed that a strange rule from UEFA will affect one of the players who signed for the club during the January transfer window.
The Gunners were not expected to engage in much activity heading into the winter transfer window but that did not turn out to be the case.
There were high-profile deals which saw the likes of Francis Coquelin, Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez leave the club on a permanent basis.
And one of the men who moved to the Emirates stadium in return was Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a player ditched by Manchester United after just over a season at Old Trafford.
The 29-year-old has been instantly assigned the number 7 shirt at Arsenal which was previously worn by the departed Alexis Sanchez.
However, due to the Chilean international’s involvement in the Gunners’ group stage campaign, Mkhitaryan will not be allowed to wear that same number in Europa games.
Strangely, the Armenian star will have to temporary settle for the number 77 shirt since UEFA does not allow two players from a team to wear the same shirt number during the course of a campaign.
He's our @premierleague No 7️⃣ but, due to @UEFA rules, @HenrikhMkh will wear 7️⃣7️⃣ in the Europa League pic.twitter.com/mRkLuEiI9W
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 2, 2018