Henrikh Mkhitaryan says it wasn’t easy when he joined Arsenal, but that he’s doing his best to find the form that made him such an exciting sight in European football a few years ago.
His link-up with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was sensational at times, and in the 2015-16 campaign notched up an incredible 23 goals and 32 assists for Borussia Dortmund.
That got him a move to Manchester United where he never fully convinced Jose Mourinho and last January he came to North London in a swap deal involving Alexis Sanchez.
The final few months of Arsene Wenger’s reign were chaotic on and off the pitch, so you can understand how it might have been tough, and this season, despite some flashes, he’s yet to find any real consistency.
The Armenian international was quizzed about his time at the club ahead of tonight’s Europa League clash, and sounded confident that he’s moving in the right direction.
“I would say it’s a bit too early to say something about it but I’m very pleased to be here and I’m trying my best,” he said.
“It wasn’t very easy at the start but I kept working every day and game after game, I’m trying to improve my game.
“I would say everything is going well, I’m very happy at the moment and I hope to continue in the same way.”
In 15 appearances this season he’s scored twice and made three assists, but a poor showing last Sunday at Bournemouth and his inclusion for tonight’s game means he’s likely to be on the bench for the North London derby on Sunday and probably the game against his former club next Wednesday.
A good display tonight, as an experienced head in a very inexperienced squad, would do him no harm though.
He has played some sensational football at Dortmund especially with Auba.
Would like to see more of that, hope he can show we got a better deal than United did with Sanchez.
Well so far stats say we did .. But that’s almost totally down to Alexis awful form since United decided to make him a Billionaire. Mikhi is a nice guy but has been pretty mediocre given what he did at DFB he needs to give us more .
He wasn’t mediocre when he joined us last season. Scored goals and had several assists. Linked well with Aubameyang and generally looked good. This season he seems to have lost confidence particularly up front. How he recovers form soon
He had 5 assists, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
yeah, well said rich
Hope I meant not how
Bundesliga is an easier league in my view. I’m not convinced he will make it big at Arsenal from what I’ve seen so far. Having said that, he could be a useful player to have on the bench.
Don’t you remember how good he was last season?
He looks similarly average in my eyes. It’s not that he is not a good player. He seems to be lacking consistency.
we woz robbed in that deal, sanchez was a far better player than Mkhitaryan, would love to swap him back
I’m backing him!
Works very hard, just lacking that bit of confidence.
Would have certainly suited Wenger’s style more and I imagine that’s why he joined.
Not writing him off yet though, he needs a good run of games
23 goals and 32 assists sounds a bit much….
Wikipedia says he scored 23 goals in 3 seasons and 90 appearances.
But what do they know…
Unless that is Auba and Mkhi’s combined stats?
Think those totals only count Bundesliga. If you look at his career stats table it shows him scoring 23 goals in all competitions that year, 11 of which were in the league. Didn’t sound right to me first either!
True, good spot, he did have a great year that season!
I thought his showing over the weekend was very poor until I listened to the Arsenal Vision podcast. I rate Stillman and Clive’s opinions highly, and they both pointed out key things I just didn’t see. In effect, Mkhi is currently the anti-Ozil; all his good work is coming off the ball (positional discipline, defensive workrate, pressing, etc.) whereas Ozil is kinda the opposite (offers little off the ball, but on the ball he does wonders). Both Stillman and Clive made an interesting point with evidence as to why Ozil won’t work with Auba up front, and how Lacca and… Read more »
good observations, but I’d rather keep Rambo and get rid of Mkhi. Can we just trade their contracts! 🙂
The AV podcast can be extremely enlightening, and Tim and Clive’s insights led to me re-evaluating my view on Mkhi as well! He’s the classic case of a player being judged on one stellar season, when looking at his last 6-7 seasons it’s obvious that season was the outlier. I don’t love him but he’s tactically responsible and been involved in some of our key moments this season. Nice to see Unai select him for pregame press duties (seems like players usually have a good game when that happens). Saw the discussion you had with people comparing Auba to Henry,… Read more »
I thought he was good at Bournemouth, he brings balance and solidity to the team, quick in transition, clever in his positioning to receive or intercept the ball. yes he misplaced a few passes, yes he can improve but I feel good and confident when I see his name on the team sheet. Come on Mkhi, COYG
We got him for free anyway. And he does contribute..
“..a poor showing last Sunday at Bournemouth..” Mkhitaryan was central in a possible tide-turning victory. If Arsenal ends up in the top four, it is likely to be very marginal, by a point or two. The Bournemouth victory and Mkhitaryan’s goal agains Wolves might well be decisive.
Mkhitaryan puts in a shift and gets into good positions, giving him minutes to play into form makes sense, we’re not blessed with countless options on the right.
Don’t know what’s wrong with him, he is really nice guy and cool player but his performances this is not convincing. Actually the Manager is giving lot of chances to prove himself but he is not proving his talent. Looks like he is a good substitute player for me right now.
He still need to adapt to Emery’s playing style where he lacks bit of confidence. His passing in final third and his finishing in front of goal really poor, if he improves these two things then definitely we will become starting XI player.
Obivously, he has adapted better than Ôzil, since he was picked ahead of him at Bournemouth. Neither was Mkhitaryan taken off towards the end, when it would have been natural to do so, had he disappointed Emery.
Iwobi rarely got the chance to show his talent for challenging the defence under Wenger, when losing the ball was a deadly sin. Now he does spectacular things, but also loses the ball often. Mkhitaryan might well have been asked to take more chances forward at Bournemouth.
I am a big fan, actually. Go, Mkhi!
He’s a very good footballer. It’s not his fault people can’t see it. Mind you, they’re probably same ones who rate Ramsey.
He’s at the twilight of his career obviously.
that was two or three years ago, but this is now, and so far he has been pathetic, he must start to perform NOW, or he MUST go
Form may be lacking, but I like his attitude. He always seems to put in the effort, even if he’s having a bad game.