Arsenal: Henrikh Mkhitaryan really only has one job to do

Arsenal brought in Henrikh Mkhitaryan to be Mesut Ozil’s opposite, but in the short time we’ve had the two, it’s clear what Mkhitaryan has to do.

Arsenal’s dependency on Alexis and Mesut Ozil spanned more years than it should have, with very little top quality assistance brought in to spot the two superstars’ workload. As such, when Alexis was sent off and Henrikh Mkhitaryan was brought on in return, the dependency was thrown into disarray until we could see how the two worked together.

Mkhitaryan is not Alexis, obviously, but he is sort of like an amalgamation of Alexis and Ozil. He has creativity and ball-control like Ozil, and he has the work rate and determination of Alexis.

One of the main reasons I was excited to see Mkhitaryan come to the Emirates was because I wanted to see him share the load with Ozil. The creative load, you could call it. It’s always hard when you regularly rely on one guy to create all of your chances.

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Needless to say, other teams are likely to figure it out and shut that one guy down, forcing you to make adjustments you otherwise wouldn’t want to make.

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But the more I watch Mkhitaryan and Ozil play together, the more I’m realizing that Mkhitaryan is here to do more than that. He is here to do what Alexis was doing in his prime with the Gunners, a prime that seems like it was another lifetime ago.

Mkhitaryan is here to steal the attention away from Ozil. And while it hasn’t gone so swimmingly on a regular basis, against AC Milan it did, and it should be the model this attack goes for from here on out.

The cool thing about Mkhitaryan is that he doesn’t get down on himself like Alexis did. Or rather, he doesn’t throw tantrums like Alexis did, I’m sure he gets down on himself. Yet he still provides the same effort and dogged determination to make things happen.

Couple that with his creativity and the defense has to key in on him because he can literally pop up anywhere, at any time. And when he does, he commands attention and, in return, Ozil can float, find the pockets of space he is looking for, and wait.

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It’s a flawless combination when executed as well as it was against Milan. Mkhitaryan was on the ball 50% more than Ozil and made a much more visible impact on the game. Which is exactly what Ozil would have wanted, as the German maestro snuck away with two assists.