How different three years in England might have been for Henrikh Mkhitaryan had Arsene Wenger got his hands on him ahead of Jose Mourinho.
His final season with Borussia Dortmund had been utterly remarkable; he had set Europe alight with a ludicrous return of 23 goals and 32 assists in 53 games, a tally he would not match in 122 games in England.
Mkhitaryan seemed to have his choice of top European sides, though the decision would ultimately boil down to Arsenal or Manchester United. With the aid of his agent Mino Raiola, who would also take Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Old Trafford that summer, it was Mourinho’s side that won the day.
He chose poorly.
![[FILE] Liverpool’s Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Salah (L) runs with the ball as Arsenal’s Brazilian defender Gabriel closes in during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium in London. (Photo by Catherine Ivill / POOL / AFP)](https://www.afriupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/000_97B779-scaled-e1703231851386-120x86.jpg "Liverpool host Arsenal in battle for Premier League Christmas No. 1 3")
At the time the indications were that the competition for places under Mourinho and the ruthless demands of the manager were what had carried the day for Mkhitaryan over the laissez-faire approach of Wenger. It is a decision that is hard to square with the player we know now, one whose confidence seems to be so fragile and who is so reliant on faith being put in him by others.
That is not a recipe for success with the then-United boss, a manager who is ceaselessly demanding of his players. For many it works perfectly even for those whose game is similar to the lithe, delicate and instinctive football displayed by Mkhitaryan at his best. Mourinho’s relationship with Mesut Ozil may have been tempestuous and riven with an accusation of cowardice but the German has rarely been better than he was at Real Madrid.
Indeed Mourinho actually showed more patience with Mkhitaryan than he has with others in the past, demanding in October of his first season that the new signing be given time “to become the top player he can be”. A manager who has not failed to admonish his stars in private and public had a notably softer approach where the Armenian was concerned.
But unlike Wenger might well have been, Mourinho was not prepared to allow Mkhitaryan to play through the struggles, would not guarantee him an immediate return to the starting XI after periods on the sidelines with injury.
Whatever the United boss tried he could not quite provoke a response from his player.
Nor could the two Arsenal managers who eventually got their hands on him after the swap deal with Alexis Sanchez. The brief flashes he showed in the early months of 2018 and 2019 are enough to mean that the Gunners undoubtedly got the better of a bad deal for both sides – unlike United they aren’t having to pay the wages of their struggling star’s sojourn to Italy this season – but this.
They found a player whose confidence had been obliterated, burying with it the technical elegance that made him such a gifted player.
There were of course bright spells. Mkhitaryan was crucial in United’s run to Europa League victory – UEFA’s farcical decision to award the 2019 final to Azerbaijan and effectively force the Armenian to gamble with his safety or miss the game meant this competition came to define his time in England – but could never quite translate that success on the European stage to the domestic game.
That was ultimately no surprise to Arsenal. Sources at the club believe the player simply lacks the physical skills required to succeed in the Premier League.
On the evidence of recent weeks that is certainly true. By the end of his time at Arsenal Mkhitaryan simply had nothing in his locker to beat a defender: no turn of pace, a wonky first touch and a passing radar that saw even the most simple of opportunities squandered. Instead he could simply be muscled off the ball with ease.
However there must be something more to his struggles than simply physicality. The Bundesliga is not a perfectly replica of the Premier League’s hurdy-gurdy nature but it is not a bad approximation and there Mkhitaryan shone, turning his relative lack of pace into a weapon. Whilst everyone else was speeding the game up he was slowing it down, unleashing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Marco Reus et al with razor sharp vision.
Ultimately in Mkhitaryan’s case to do so requires an utterly copacetic environment both personally and professionally. Soon after he arrived at Arsenal he spoke about feeling a “warmth” that was not evident in Manchester.
“It’s like a family where everyone’s taking care of you,” he said.
That familial bond was not so tight when Mkhitaryan struggled under Unai Emery, a metatarsal injury cutting short one encouraging run of form, a minor back problem another. In between those Arsenal stumbled upon a formation that had space for only one creator and the 30-year-old was reduced to frustrating cameos and a fringe role in the squad.
Supporters did not stint in venting their frustrations at the latest in a long line of inconsistent creators to don the Arsenal shirt and his final appearance, for the time being, was greeted with a chorus of boos when he replaced Alexandre Lacazette in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham. It was a display that summed up everything that has gone wrong with Mkhitaryan.
Twice in 23 minutes he found himself dispossessed, more times than any other Arsenal midfielder, his only dribble proved to be unsuccessful and his one shot on goal was blocked. No matter what he tried he simply could not force a major contribution on an opponent who he had so tortured in a Dortmund shirt.
With Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli snapping at his heels there was simply no value in Arsenal keeping him around – why settle for one star on the wane when there are four youngsters on the rise whose combined wage is far less than the £200,000-a-week Mkhitaryan earns.
Even though Alex Iwobi’s sale had been partly predicated on the belief that Arsenal would not be able to move Mkhitaryan on the Gunners were happy to allow two senior attacking midfielders to depart. Nelson had already leapfrogged the Armenian in the pecking order, others soon would.
Arsenal made an exceptional deal in convincing Roma to take on Mkhitaryan’s entire wage packet but as he departs England on a temporary basis before the Gunners try to move him on again next summer it is a pity the Premier League never saw this marvellous talent at his best.
Had he chosen differently in the summer of 2016 this might have been so different. It might not have been – there is more nuance to Mkhitaryan’s time in England than the familiar tale of an elegant talent throttled by Mourinho’s pragmatism – but Wenger, who had so little time to work with him at Arsenal, and his liberating approach to attacking talent would have been by far the best suited manager to working with the Armenian.
Instead of considering the Frankenstein’s team that he joined imagine what Mkhitaryan might have done in the team that began the 2016/17 season, a monstrously fluid side with Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Santi Cazorla gliding around the flitting presence of Alexis Sanchez, at his most devastating as a repurposed centre forward.
Arsenal would have been freewheeling and thrilling, must-watch football just as Dortmund had been. They would have conceded goals en masse but probably scored even more. They would have been perfect for Mkhitaryan.
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