WATCH: Confused Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk reacts to ‘London is red’ jibe from selfie-hunting fan

The Ukraine international is currently away with his country preparing for Euro 2024 qualifiers against North Macedonia and Malta. He has been mingling with fans ahead of those games, with many eager to land themselves a photo and signature.

One of those looking to get a picture with Mudryk reacted to getting their snap with the 22-year-old by shouting “London is red” after him as the £89 million ($109m) star prepared to board the Ukrainian team bus – leading Mudryk to quip back with: “Why are you asking for a photo then?”

Mudryk almost ended up in the red of Arsenal during the January transfer window of 2023, with Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin having told The Athletic of how a protracted saga played out: “Arsenal contacted the player almost one-and-a-half months before they contacted us. Can you imagine, for example, to have Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko and the sporting director (Edu) calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days? You can want or not want the move but you follow this kind of reception and contacts.

"If you talk about Chelsea, they called me at the end of December and asked if they can contact Mudryk because they are interested in him and want to talk with him. I said, 'No problem, you can contact him'. Overall, it was the same. Not approximately the same — it was the same figure. The fixed part, variable part, bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and fair in some points.”

Mudryk endured a tough start to his time at Stamford Bridge, going 24 games before scoring his first competitive goal for Chelsea, but he got off the mark in a derby date with Fulham and will be hoping to make a decisive contribution for the Blues when returning to west London after the October international break.