Arsenal: Henrikh Mkhitaryan was still a win for the club

Arsenal have seen the back of Henrikh Mkhitaryan at last, and he’s opened up about losing his passion at the Emirates. Still, the man was a win.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is turning into a tragic story at Arsenal. But then again, his entire Premier League career has been a bit tragic. Ever since he came over from Dortmund it’s been a downhill trudge that he has only just been spared from with his loan move to Roma, which is obviously hoping will turn into something more permanent.

It hasn’t been a good time at the Emirates (or at Old Trafford). His goal production, which was among the best in the world in the Bundesliga, has fallen off right along with Mesut Ozil and he just hasn’t been able to find himself no matter how hard he tries.

Even with brief glimpses of brilliance, it’s never enough to last a prolonged period of time. Last season there was a bout four matches in a row where he was tremendous, but as soon as it was here, it left again and he was back to misfiring.

All that said, no matter how Mkhitaryan turned out, there is no doubting that overall, he was a massive win for this club.

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Think about it. When we brought him over, Alexis Sanchez was about to walk for free. The sniveling Chilean was a sap on morale and everyone knew it, so we weren’t going to be able to sell him. At the last minute, Mkhitaryan arose as a “better than nothing” option, and true to form, Mkhitaryan was indeed better than nothing.

It’s a low bar to set, but he still hit it. Alexis failed at United even harder than Mkhitaryan did at the Emirates, but we upgraded, because Alexis was mid-fail at the Emirates himself when we let him go for Mkhitaryan. We cut wages, saved the position, and even if Mkhitaryan struggled, he still provided a veteran presence that Unai Emery valued up until the end.

It was Mkhitaryan or… what? At least he provided the energy and enthusiasm that Ozil never did/could, and when you really get down to it, I preferred Micky over Ozil any day of the weak. If you’re going to have two ineffective creative midfielders, at least give me the one that works harder.

So while it didn’t work out, it beat the alternative, which was either nothing, or another miserable five months with Alexis.