Arsenal: Who said Henrikh Mkhitaryan wasn’t world class?

Arsenal saw the best out of Henrikh Mkhitaryan for the third consecutive game, so can we finally take heart in this being the real him?

Arsenal ran roughshod over Bournemouth, and it was an effort that saw the best in just about every attacker that touched the ball, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan stole then show and earned man of then match for the third consecutive match, and you know what that means.

You should all know my “class” parameters by now. It’s the parameters that I grew up believing in and I still do. If you do something great once, it’s luck. If you do it twice in a row, it’s a coincidence. Three times in a row, and it’s the real deal.

Ever since Mkhitaryan arrived at the Emirates, he has shown flashes of brilliance, usually one match at a time. He’d do beautifully one match and fade into obscurity or, worse, into a liability, in the next match.

If we were lucky, he’d string two successful matches together, but for the life of me, I can’t remember a time.

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These three matches that we have now seen in a row are Mkhitaryan’s three best matches with the club – and they all came in a row. Three straight matches, three straight world class performances. These are performances that look like how he looked when he was regarded as world class at Borussia Dortmund for his unbelievable combo play with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Which is why it was so appropriate that, for the fourth goal, it was all Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang.

Still though, even when he hasn’t had Aubameyang, he’s suffered no loss. So much of Mkhitaryan’s recent struggles have come down to confidence – having open nets and just scuffing the chance. He’s made no such mistakes in his recent run of form. In the past two matches alone, he’s fired just three shots, two have been goals.

That’s efficiency.

He’s created five chances in those two matches, three have been assists. If you start talking about the missed chances that his strikers had against BATE Borisov, when Mkhitaryan created another four chances, you start getting into some seriously astounding territory.

I kept saying earlier this season and at the end of last – we know that Mkhitaryan has world class talent, we just haven’t seen it come to fruition yet. Well, after that match against Bournemouth, we finally have. And I can’t wait to see what he can do against Tottenham.