Arsenal: No, Henrikh Mkhitaryan is not enough by himself

Arsenal made one hell of a deal landing Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but practically speaking, why would that ever be enough to push for silverware?

Let me start out this article by saying that I am thrilled that Arsenal landed Henrikh Mkhitaryan. It felt satisfying to finally get a worthy deal while losing a superstar. We got a superstar in return, and I think we will be surprised how easy it will be to get Mkhitaryan back into top form.

That said, we have to think about the move from a practical standpoint when thinking about if it will be enough. Because it should be painfully obvious that in no way would that transfer alone be enough to move forward with.

They say that Arsenal is a club that is always one or two players short of challenging for a title and they couldn’t be more right. This is a club that always dances along a tightrope, hoping that all their players reach their full potential in any given year, with no fallback in case they don’t.

The same is true in the January window thus far.

Think about it this way. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil were supposed to be enough. Those were the two guys that Arsene Wenger pointed to when questioned about his transfer policy. Those two were not enough. They were a start, not a finish. And by time he added to it, Alexis was on his way out the door.

So, in response, you switch Alexis for another top quality player. Good move, but what has actually been gained? You’ve simple stopped the backtracking and given the club a player who can ideally make up the steps that were lost by Alexis’s downfall.

Check out the latest Pain in the Arsenal Podcast!

But then what? Do you expect Mkhitaryan to take the club farther then Alexis could? He might be able to push them a little farther, but all you’ve really done is seen the leak in the ship, stopped the water coming in, patched the hole and resumed sailing. But that ship was never fast enough to keep up with the other vessels.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

This isn’t me being ungrateful for Mkhitaryan. He is a fantastic addition, as we will soon see. But it returned the club to where it was in, say 2015/16. The problem there is that every other team, City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, have all improved since then. They’ve improved a hell of a lot.

Meanwhile we haven’t. Alexandre Lacazette was a step in the right direction, but we are still one or two players away.

Adding them now, in January, looks easy. Throw in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Jonny Evans and we will win the Carabao Cup and the Europa League. The summer will then be less stressful and we can really build out the team.

Or we can put it off the to the summer, risk some more major exits (like Mesut Ozil) and repeat the same cycle of frustration over and over.

Next: Arsenal's Ideal XI With Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Three days remain. We can make all the difference in three days.