Arsenal: Henrikh Mkhitaryan toils a tale of caution

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has admitted that he did not enjoy football while enduring difficult times in England. The Arsenal midfielder’s toils are a cautionary tale to those who follow in his footsteps.

Such have been the struggles of Henrikh Mkhitaryan in English football, it is difficult to forget just how dangerous and consistently creative he was for Borussia Dortmund before his arrival.

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In 53 games, he scored 23 goals and assisted 32, which is an absolutely absurd number. He was, unquestionably, one of the best central attacking midfielders in world football, the beating heart of a Dortmund team that scored 82 Bundesliga goals in 2015/16, more than league winners Bayern Munich. It took him 122 games in England to match those same goal-and-assist numbers.

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So what happened? What happened to one of the brightest attacking talents in Europe, a player who led one of the most lethal and prolific attacks? How did he slip into utter mediocrity, with loose touches, misplaced passes, a painful lack of dynamism and spark?

Well, it is difficult to answer those questions. But after agreeing to a deadline-day loan to AS Roma, Mkhitaryan, who had spent his previous 18 months at Arsenal after an even more lacking two-and-a-half years at Manchester United, was asked about his feelings regarding the move. He did not hold back on his time in England:

"“I have to enjoy playing football, no matter the place. In England, I no longer felt happy. I got a call from my agent and I wanted to come, because it was a great opportunity for me. I didn’t even have a discussion with my agent about money. Maybe I was not fitting so well in English football, so I think a change was good. The last month at Arsenal I was not happy, so that’s why I said it was better to come to Roma and to get happy and to get the pleasure from playing football again.”"

His toils in England are a cautionary tale to those who would attempt to follow his career trajectory from Europe to the Premier League. While the gap in standard has certainly diminished over the past decade and the unique physicality is not quite so jarring for those who have not grown up in English football, there is still a freakish element to the Premier League that those in Europe struggle with.

It is difficult to put your finger on, especially given England’s struggles in Europe before last season, but there is obviously a different style of play in the Premier League that does not suit the more continental players of Europe and South America.

That is not to say that some cannot adapt. Many have. And many more will. But it is not agiven, even when you sign a player who has 20-plus assists and 30-plus goals in a little more than 50 games in his previous season.

So when clubs splash another £50 million on a foreign import, do not automatically assume they will flourish in the Premier League. There is still a uniqueness to English football, and Mkhitaryan’s toils are proof.