Arsenal Vs West Ham United: Henrikh Mkhitaryan needs to shine

Arsenal host West Ham United on Saturday afternoon. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has struggled thus far this season, is scheduled to start and could be the Gunners’ primary creator with Mesut Ozil absent through illness. The Armenian needs to shine.

The Premier League rumbles on this weekend as Arsenal return to the Emirates looking for their first win of the season. Playing the last two champions in Manchester City and Chelsea was never going to be an easy opening to the Unai Emery. And so it proved. A win, therefore, is needed.

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Their opponents, West Ham United, arrive in north London in similarly poor form. Two defeats from their opening two matches also, Manuel Pellegrini’s side have looked disjointed and unprepared thus far. This, then, is a very winnable game indeed.

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The Gunners may have to win this match without Mesut Ozil. There are growing suggestions that Ozil is set to miss the fixture with an illness — it is a little absurd the number of matches that Ozil misses through ‘illness’. That will diminish the creativity and flair of this team drastically in the final third. Even with Ozil’s poor form and contributions this season, his absence will be hard felt. Other players will have to step up.

One of those players will likely be Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian is one of only six outfield players to have played all 180 minutes of the season so far. Even if his numbers look productive, his performances have been far from what was expected of him. Against City, he was isolated and lost for large portions of the game, roundly dominated by the pace and power of Kyle Walker, unable to get on the ball and influence the game in the final third. A week later, he may have notched a goal and an assist, but his overall display was very poor indeed.

If Ozil is set to miss West Ham’s trip to the Emirates, then Mkhitaryan will be seen as Arsenal’s primary creative force. Both him and Ozil do play in a similar manner. They like to drift from space to space, collecting the ball, turning, surveying the field, before playing piercing through passes or whipping crosses in from wide positions.

Sometimes, when both are fielded alongside one another, they can get in each other’s way. They like to occupy the same spaces and have always performed best when they have speed and movement around them. If both feature, not only do they find themselves cramped and crowded in central areas, but they also lack runners off the ball to feed.

Mkhitaryan is also under pressure to keep his position in the team. Aaron Ramsey was dropped against Chelsea and Alexandre Lacazette is yet to start a match; there are plenty of alternative options that Emery could turn to in Mkhitaryan’s stead should he not perform.

This is the type of match that Mkhitaryan should shine in. He will see a lot of the ball, he will be the player through which the attack runs, he will be the central attacking piece of the team. It’s time for him to deliver.