Friday, December 13, 2024

Confirmed: Mkhitaryan joins AS Roma on season-long loan

It has been confirmed that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will spend the season on loan at AS Roma.

The Armenia international joined the Gunners 19 months ago from Manchester United in a deal that saw Alexis Sanchez move the other way but like the Chilean, who moved to Inter Milan last week, he’s struggled for form in his new surroundings.

On the face of it, 13 assists and nine goals in 59 appearances isn’t a terrible return from Mkhitaryan but as anyone who watches him knows, the only thing that’s consistent about his performances is his inconsistency.

According to David Ornstein, Roma will pay all of Mkhitaryan’s wages, thought to be in the region of £200,000, but there is no obligation or first option to buy. Contrary to that, the Guardian says the Serie A outfit do have an option to buy.

The 30-year-old’s exit does put the pressure on our young players to step up. Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka are waiting in the wings for a chance to play the wide role. There’s also renewed focus on Mesut Ozil’s position in the squad; without the competition provided by Alex Iwobi, Aaron Ramsey and Micki he should be getting more starts.

Best of luck to Micki in Italy, we look forward to the look on agent Mino Raiola’s face when he sees his cash cows facing each other on 8 December.

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Tom

Why bring him on over Nelson if he isn’t first choice then… makes no sense

Mayor McCheese

Nelson was anonymous at Newcastle, and you think he was the right call to make a late impact in a NLD?

It’s all well and good to say it after the fact, but I for one didn’t think expect Mkhitaryan to be that bad when he came on. He had a shocker.

Bergy Bergy

Good luck in Italy – pity it didn’t work out for him here.

HelderHughes

Oh Mickey so benign,
So benign you blow my mind,
Hey Mickey, hey Mickey.

Oh Mickey in decline,
In decline since when you signed,
Hey Mickey, hey Mickey.

Oh Mickey what a pity, thought you’d be the man,

Not a glorified Gabriel Obertan.

Oh Mickey what a pity, falling down the roster,

And now you play with – Zappacosta

What did you do Mickey, do Mickey, why make a doll Mickey?

Hey Mickey, hey Mickey…

I just want to thank my boss who paid me for this afternoons work. It was money really badly spent.

The Spoon

I disagree, I’d give you a pay rise. Creativity is under rated. And in Mikis case, non existent.

Clockendrider

Quality output

Chris

Magnificent work.

Sam

This is what the internet was made for

Wilsheres Middle Finger

????????????

Mayor McCheese

Loved that. “why make a doll Mickey” LOL

Okester

Surely the club must have known he was leaving yesterday, but still chose to give him game time in the NLD over players that we’re keeping. Very strange decision making by Emery….

ASH

Maybe someone still needed convincing, and that NLD performance finally confirmed to him what everyone knew a long long time ago.

SA Fan

We didn’t need to put him on show to arrive at that conclusion. We as fans may not be managers but we see the game through passion filled eyes and if they’d just listened to us…..

Bob's Mexican Cousin

His disdain for ozil is ridiculous

Atom

Ozils output the past few years isn’t all that different but without the defensive shift. Neither have been good for the past few years – time to play younger players

Alex

Why not considering the pre season? Or Arsenal – Valence… oh, sorry, yeah Özil is s***.

atom

The pre-season is nothing more than a bunch of friendlies. Ozil hasn’t consistently performed well in almost 3 years at this point – it’s time for him to either put up or for us to move on. It appears we’re moving on.

Alex

Yes, i know: when Özil plays well, it’s not important. Barca, Real and Bayern are non important teams. Nothing is important when Özil delivers. Even when he goals and/or assists against the big 5. Then it means these high profile teams are s***.

Atom

Alex I get you’re a huge Ozil fan but it’s not even debatable at this point that he’s been wildly inconsistent to put it charitably / pretty average most games for a long time now. The European final was our biggest game for quite some time and likely the final straw for Ozil at Arsenal. He doesn’t fit into where the club is moving 4/3/3 with Ceballos providing creativity but offering real energy and bite & Ozils output is too inconsistent to build the team around. Ozil is pretty similar to Miki at this point – both look finished at… Read more »

Gooooooonnnnaaaaaaaa

Considering United are still paying most of Sanchez’s wages, I think getting Roma to pay Mikhi’s full wages is a great piece of business from the Don.

But what’s the deal with Mustafi???? Is he not f***ing off???? I genuinely don’t want him anywhere near our club!

Mattinc

Oh come on! Mustafi is blundering, and I want him gone too, but he’s not awful. Luis and Xhaka have exactly the same quality of idiocy.

Richie

When you see we’re currently down to 5 fit defenders, the 4 that played yesterday plus Chambers, if Mustafi doesn’t go then I think there could be a lifeline for him in the Europa League group stages and Carabao cup.

Martin

Who is Luis?

SA Fan

For me the one positive thing out of this has been that united have suffered a great deal more than we have. Sanchez truly hurt them in many ways. Am I evil for celebrating their pain? The only thing that could’ve been better is if we’d done it to the damn spuds.

Shropshwire Lad

I agree 100% with that statement.

AP86

Surely Nelson deserved to be subbed in ahead of Mykhi

Berlingoon

Actually based on what I’ve seen from him this season you can’t really say that he’s deserved to play in a nld. If someone deserved it based on the performances so far this season and pre season it was probably Martinelli. I also would have gone for Nelson instead of Mkhitaryan but it wasn’t a shocking decision or anything like that. Some fans are overhyping Reiss to a degree that’s not healthy. Season is young and he already started 2 games. He‘ll play loads of games in the cups and he will surely get a shot whenever one of PAL… Read more »

GraeB

Why all the Miki or Reiss talk here? Surely that stage in NLD if we’re looking to tighten within that formation the choice was Willock?

Crash Fistfight

We weren’t looking to do that, though. It wasn’t a tactical substitution – Laca asked to be substituted because he felt something in his hamstring.

Iain Kendal

Agree could have been both a bit of someone needed convincing (which it would have); plus perhaps it was an attempt to strengthen our bargaining position…(hmm)

sami

Prob gave it to him as a sorry for the Baku situation lol

Cagooner

Good luck to Miki! If yesterday’s performance is anything to go on we’ll be fine with Nelson, Saka and Willock covering on the bench. Even Kalasinac on the left maybe. Onwards and upwards!! #COYG.

Gooooooonnnnaaaaaaaa

We also have Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe, and John-Jules who can also play there. For someone who earns over £200k a week, he is “pound for pound” one of the worst signings in our history.

Mesut O’Neill

Lol. A guy that cost nothing is our worst pound for pond signing ?

Peter Story Teller

He cost us Alexis and an awful lot of wages for an indifferent return.
Still we are getting there. Only a few more to get off the books but we might have to wait until January now!

Ausdrexler

I think Alexis cost us Alexis. He is to blame here. The club decided to move him on, and we got as much in return as we could for him. Sadly, Mhki didnt work out but if he ahd captured just 50% of his Dortmund form would of been a huge improvement on what we got.

Crash Fistfight

No, the club could have sold Alexis to Man City in the summer for £60m and chose not to do so because they couldn’t get Lemar. Even without getting Lemar, it was the right thing to do (same as selling Ramsey and/or Welbeck last summer).

He was willing to go and Man City made a perfectly acceptable offer. It was nothing to do with Alexis, no matter how much of a prick he was in his last season+ for us.

kaius

It was such a missed opportunity, and it’s no coincidence we haven’t played CL football since Alexis left. Nearly every single Gooner is jealous of the way Liverpool let Coutinho go so they could bring in world-class players in other needed positions. But Alexis was our Coutinho moment. Peak Alexis was the best player in the league. Even at his worst after that last season, he was still worth 50-70m. We effectively swapped him for a washed-up player and convinced ourselves we’d done something smart because we were mad at Alexis. Let’s not delude ourselves and try to blame the… Read more »

Red-Sky

Well said.
We lost a very good player, even if he was sulking, and gained nothing in his replacer.
I also think Utd are more capable of absorbing the financial hit than us. we really needed that 60m.

Goonshow

Is a ‘replacer’ some sort of turbocharged ‘replacement’?
Surely then it can’t be applied to Mik…

assistantref

As someone who supports both Arsenal and Roma…I was really happy reading the headlines on this till I got to the part where it said where he was going.

kaius

Seems a strange fit but maybe he’ll do well in Paulo Fonseca’s system

Mekus

Don Raul, I salute you

Mintoes

Confirmed: Mustafi stays!

🙁

Anonymarse

boo

Atom

Just don’t play him again and suspect he’ll be pretty motivated to move on in January

Gooooooonnnnaaaaaaaa

Could he be going to Scotland!?!? Their window is open till midnight….please!!!! Anyone!!! ?

PeteyB

Wouldn’t be a bad move for him to go to one of the Old Firm. Didn’t do Van Dijk any harm.

Pepe's cut

Yeah it was the relentless quality of Scottish strikers that made VVD the player he is today

The Spoon

Hopefully means game time for Nelson and Saka! Why Nelson didn’t get on Sunday we will never know. A poor Nelson is at least getting experience, a poor Miki is just wasting everyone’s time.

Scwibble

It won’t let me give you 2 thumbs up! Make am exception blogs!

Grumbleduke

All the best to him at Roma. Shame we couldn’t have done a Loan One Get One Free and dropped mustafi in the deal.

lettra

Heh ,, was wondering who you wanted from their squad before it dropped.

Bob's Mexican Cousin

Questionable judgement from Emery in my opinion; ie, playing mkhi the eve before a loan, hanging other/better options on bench. Ozil is a world class Arsenal player and yet he’d rather risk an injury to a guy we’re desperate to move on. It’s extremely frustrating. We have a terrible away record and there’s a strong correlation with Ozil not playing away games. Its a fact just as much as his poor body language; it’s possible that he puts a shift in a unconvential way and/or that his mere presence changes the dynamic of games. I would play him in front… Read more »

Ausdrexler

I am excited to see what Ozil can do with 3 forwards in front of him. But on the other hand, we need to sort the 6 guys out behind him to ensure they can cover his fairly obvious defensive frailties.

A P

Was Emery every known for his man management skills and tactical prowess?

Red-Sky

Ozil & away form. Lol.

Amusa

Good luck to Mikhi. Never faulted his commitment.

On a sidenote we couldn’t play Monreal today because he could have gotten injured and put his transfer in jeopardy.
But we played Mikhitariyan even though his wages are significantly higher and the need to get rid of him was higher. And he was on his way out.

Can someone explain this logic to me?
With Monreal playing yesterday we would have won it and he would have had a chance to say Goodbye ?

anonarse

Monreal was sold before NLD, so he wasn’t an Arsenal player at the time.
Why we did’nt sold him today is another question.

loose_cannon

Smalling and now Mkhi on loan. Whatever they’re smoking over there in Rome I want some….for medicinal purposes of course 😉

Wengerballz

Member when we had a whole bunch of talented midfielders?

Rich

£200,000 p/w???…. that is mental!
Thank fu*k Gazidis chose to leave…..

This leaves us light, but I don’t buy into the idea of Ozil getting more starts as a result of this.

It looks to me as if we’d rather have potential inconsistency from our younger player like Smith-Rowe+Nelson, than persist with the inconsistency of Mkhitaryan+Ozil.

HovRus

All the best, Heno! Wish you find your feet there!

lettra

13 assists
9 Goals
59 Appearances

I wish him the best hope he finds his consistency in a more forgiving league , he could have done way better here . Those stats are decent (“for the worst swap deal ever”) that’s a direct goal involvement every 2,5 games for perspective the current version of Sanchez is involved in a goal every 25 games (if he was allowed games).

Mesay

I don’t know about Micki, but it was Emrate’s curse that crippled the the magnificent Sanchez.

Gordy

I thought he did a couple of decent things yesterday but he could have made himself a hero a couple of times but didn’t shoot and gave the ball to someone in a worse position. And why not bring our most creative person on for the last 20 mins?

jon

Mkhitaryan came on late, obviously under orders to take more risks going forward. This entails losing the ball more often, which he did.

But I really like the player. Good close control, good speed and good presence (mostly). But like Özil, this type of players need a lot of playing time to find the mojo with their team mates. Özil makes surprising passes, sometimes also to the surprise of the players he is trying to reach. Mkhitaryan is somewhat similar.

Run over the Lazio bastards in Italy, Miki!

loose_cannon

Not a huge fan of Ozil over the last few years but even I was baffled to see him stay on the bench in favour of Mkhitaryan. I was even more baffled that Willock and Nelson didn’t get the nod. Oh well, I guess it’s Roma’s problem now. Good luck to him anyway, there’s probably still a good player in there somewhere.

Fireman Sam

Miki is not too bad. He’s got talent for sure. I wish him luck anyway.

Giuseppe Hovno

Such an exciting opportunity for all the youngsters! Time for them to shine

MSPgoon

Best of luck Miki! After banging my head against the wall for years at Arsenal moves, this Summer has replete with good sense. Even though we remain far off from MC and Liverpool, I’m very excited to see rising stars like Nelson, Willock, Guendouzi and the like continue to get their chances (Miki leaving helps with this). Personally, I also really want to see Ozil kick on. When Ozil is at his best conducting the orchestra, Arsenal are ever so beautiful to watch.

lessthanthesumoftheirparts

His game against Leicester last season was pure art.

Mesut O’Neill

Yes, that one time in a season where he actually played like his wages!!

Alex

“Beautiful” is not an UE word.

A P

I am not sure if Emery’s ego or his insistence on playing out from the back, thereby allowing the other side to regroup, can bring out the best in a creative player.

Spursarewank

Why did we pay him at all yesterday? Bogles my mind honestly. What a waste of a substitution it was

Oregoon

Novel idea. No pay unless each player hits their basic individual game goals and stats.

Tome

I am so happy this useless peice of shit is gone from our club. And as for Emery playing him yesterday I believe it will be these kind of decisions that will cost him his job come the end of the season. Watch this space. Coyg

Richie

You could have made a half decent whole new Premier League team with the players we have let go (okay some on loan) this summer; Cech; Jenkinson, Leitchsteiner, Koscielny, Monreal; Iwobi, Elneny, Ramsey, Mkhitarian; Welbeck, Nketiah. Subs: Ospina, Bielik, Pleguezuelo, Thompson, Amaechi, Asano, Nwakali

Tommmy

That side would not score many goals, and as we’ve seen with Arsenal for many years would concede a lot!

John C

Great news, Him, Monreal and Elneny’s recent departures point to some more transfer activity in January.

It looks more and more like the new administration gave the squad last season to see what they had and have now wielded the axe quite ruthlessly. To the contrary of what many on here might think this looks to me that Emery’s got the job for next season as well, and the club have bought into his vision and are prepared to back his decisions

DB10s Air Miles

Or perhaps the board insisted on trimming the squad and wage bill? Just a thought.

Group captain mandrake

Weren’t there articles at the end of the summer talking about Arsenal’s transfer plans for January? I would assume these sales indicate a little bit of wage bill trimming as well as adding to the team.

John C

Sure, but given the number of in and outs that’s quite a commitment to Emery’s vision of what he wants his squad to look like

Dave Cee

That was an axe that needed wielding..and there are still a few big heaves required

Win,lose or draw Emery remains the wrong choice

Mhkitaryan i do wish you the best….i know you worked hard in the pitch..i saw it and I’m not blind to that.. I appreciate it but it had to come to an end

kaius

I just wish we’d been smarter when it was time to sell Alexis

Roland Close

No issue at all with this decision. At least three talented youngsters to compete for that position.

Pleased the way that decisions are actually being made. Dead wood gradually being cleared out. Good signings and promoting youth.

Supporters just need patience.

Last season was very much a learning experience for Emery. He established what needed to be done. To be fair Kroenke has backed him. This is a season of building a new team. Next season is the ” take-off” season.

Exciting times!!!

Mesut O’Neill

Unfortunately the words “patience” & “football fans” do not go together!!

RoyalT

I lost faith in him when he was to afraid to play in the Europa finale. Good luck

kaius

You little coward.

Arsenalfanman

Never really worked out, I like the guy but he’s a bit useless. You know it’s bad when I’d rather see Walcott back over him.

Elegant Slim

Think about it…
Without Mhiki coming over maybe a toxic Sanchez leaves for nothing and unsettles the squad further.
Without Mhiki coming maybe his mate from Dortmund Auba isn’t convinced that Arsenal is a great place to be.
Mhiki’s wages on par with Sanchez so like for like…

Talent +, results – on the pitch but for the squad, still decent business.

Dom47

We lost our mickey. Doesn’t matter, it became soft and kinda useless 🙂 that stupid song still going through my mind… Our midfield Armenian….

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