Arsenal: Complete player rankings for the 2018/19 season

16. Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Another huge ‘what if’ though in slightly different circumstances. At the start of the year, I had Henrikh Mkhitaryan pegged as the guy that could make up for Mesut Ozil’s ineffectiveness. And at times, I felt wholly justified in that assessment. There is something truly special about an in-form, fit and firing Mkhitayran. It’s remarkable.

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But it was so rare. And the thing with Mkhitaryan is that it’s either there or it is glaringly not there. He’s either on target, peppering the goal, or he’s punting it all the way to Finsbury Park. There’s very little in between with him,

On the bright side, even when he is punting it woefully off target, he still has a work rate that makes up some leeway, which Ozil doesn’t have, nor apparently will he ever. That helped keep Mkhitaryan somewhat afloat.

There was a short burst in the season when he had four positive matches in a row, in two of which he managed two goals and three assists, and I could have sworn he’d turned the corner, but an injury got in the way and when he returned, it was like starting all over again.

All that said, he did finish tied with Aaron Ramsey for third on the team in goal production, so there’s definitely some worth there. Even if he is the guy who had the greatest separation between Andy’s ranking and my own.

Andy (19), Josh (13)

No. 15 coming up.