Jose Mourinho praises Arsenal's handling of Alexis Sanchez's missed drugs test

Jose Mourinho has praised Arsene Wenger for the honesty shown in clearing up the matter pertaining to a drugs test missed by Alexis Sanchez while his transfer to Manchester United was underway and revealed that the circumstances were such that no one had any clear idea of his whereabouts,

Sanchez failed to inform UK Anti-Doping of his location on Monday while he was finalising his switch to United, in a deal which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan join Arsenal in a swap. Wenger said on Friday that the Gunners should take full responsibility for failing to report Sanchez's absence to the authorities ahead of their game against Swansea on Tuesday.

Mourinho was pleased that the matter was dealt with professionally by Arsenal and revealed that such was Sanchez's schedule on the day of his transfer that no one had any clear idea of his location at any given time. The Chilean was registered in time to be part of United's FA Cup team to take on Yeovil Town in the fourth round, where he picked up two assists as the Red Devils cruised to a 4-0 win.

"I think Arsenal were very honest in the way they approached the situation," said Mourinho, of Sanchez's missed drugs test, as quoted by Sky Sports. "We all know we must tell the whereabouts, our players where they are 24 hours a day. Nobody knew where he was going to be, it was just a period of his transfer. So I think it's easily understandable, no one's mistake and just a consequence of the moment."

Wenger had earlier accepted that the administration side of Sanchez's drugs test would fall under the purview of Arsenal despite the Chilean not being part of the Gunners squad anymore. However, neither the club nor the player had anything to hide, so they were relaxed over talk of any possible action taken against them.

The Frenchman further marked the day as a special occasion for Sanchez and he would not have missed the test on any other day.

"Honestly on the administration side it would certainly be our responsibility because on the day he had not moved so maybe it will be down to us. I don't really know what happened," Wenger said, as quoted by the Guardian.

"I'm quite relaxed because we have nothing to hide here, we always try our best to cooperate with doping control. I pushed always for football to do more against doping so I don't see why we shouldn't cooperate. We try our best but this was a special day.

"The most important is that the intention is right. The intention of Alexis was certainly not to hide – nor was our intention to hide anything. We have nothing to hide."