Arsenal: The key attribute Henrikh Mkhitaryan brings

Arsenal have a clear lack of dribblers in the squad. Thankfully, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has an excellent ability at beating defenders. It’s vital to this team.

Gradually, quietly and somewhat efficiently, during the last 18 months to two years of Arsene Wenger’s tenure, Arsenal greatly evolved their playing squad. Many of the names that had been staples of the club were eased out, either through sales, retirements or resignations to the reserves, and new ones were slowly introduced.

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It is not inconceivable that, this season, Arsenal’s strongest XI with only three players that have been in the senior squad at the club for more than two years, those players being Hector Bellerin, Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey. In the last two years, there has been a great raft of change within the playing personnel.

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As a part of this evolution, there were two key departures of a similar ilk. Both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott were sold in the past 12 months. The sales were conducted for very different reasons. The two players are at very different stages of their careers. They went to very different sides of the Merseyside divide. But they both left Arsenal lacking players possessing a key skill set: the ability to dribble.

Now, Chamberlain was a far more adept dribbler than Walcott. But the latter still had the quality to pick up the ball in a deep position and beat a defender in a one-on-one situation. It may have been as much to do with his pace as his touch and technique, but his presence had the same impact in wide areas: defenders were scared to get too close to him.

In this current crop of players, there is only one who I feel has the same dribbling abilities as Chamberlain and Walcott, him being Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang does boast the pace to speed past defenders, Alex Iwobi shows quick feet from time to time. But neither are as good dribblers as Mkhitaryan, or as Walcott or Chamberlain.

It is, I believe, extremely important that Mkhitaryan offers this defender-beating ability. In tight spaces, against resolute, deep-sitting defences, when chances are difficult to create and the neat, intricate interplay isn’t quick as sharp and fast-paced, having a player like Mkhitaryan to produce that individual moment of brilliance, skipping past a couple of defenders and flashing a cross into the box, is invaluable.

Take Manchester City, for instance. For all of their brilliant play in Pep Guardiola’s tika-taka system, oftentimes, it was a Leroy Sane or Raheem Sterling dribble that unlocked the stubborn defence that they were struggling to break down. Additionally, there is a reason that Guardiola has just splashed £60 million on Riyad Mahrez. He can dribble.

Is Mkhitaryan as dynamic and direct as these players with the ball at his feet? Perhaps not. But he is probably the best dribbler in the Arsenal squad. For that reason, his presence is absolutely vital.