Former Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal midfielder, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is currently on loan at AS Roma from Arsenal FC. He is enjoying his football after some time at the Italian club. After two frustrating spells at Manchester United and Arsenal, he is finally finding his feet. This has given him some confidence and he likes where he is at present
Mkhitaryan was not happy to work under former Arsenal manager Unai Emery. Emery’s more defensive game did not suit his playing style.
“When I was at Arsenal, I had different things asked from me by the coach, people were expecting different things from here,” Mkhitaryan said in an interview for The Times.
“The philosophy of Emery was different from Fonseca, but here I am feeling much better because we are playing better football and I think it matched me. I prefer Fonseca’s football because we are playing very offensively, we are trying to have the ball all the time here and of course, I like this kind of game.”
Mkhitaryan joined the Gunners in a swap deal with Alexis Sanchez who joined Manchester United. Both the players though could not justify this transfer and both are currently playing on loan from their parent club.
The Armenian captain is having a great season in the Italian capital and has managed a goal or an assist in every 90 minutes so far. The 31-year-old currently earns 180,000/week and is ready to take a pay cut to stay at Roma next season.
There are a few new faces at Arsenal. Youngsters like Nicholas Pepe, Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka are playing in the first team and probably he is not in the future plans of current gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
Asked about his future, the Arsenal midfielder continued: “I can not say anything at the moment because the season is stopped, we do not know when we’ll start playing again and what will happen in the summer.”
“Football changes so quickly. One day you are here, the other you are there. You never know what can happen and what will happen with you.”
Roma boss has been impressed with his player and would want a permanent move for the Armenian playmaker. He had some issues with injuries earlier in the season but since then he has registered six goals and four assists in 13 appearances for Roma in the Seria A.
Henrikh is now 31 and entering the final stage of his football career. Roma won’t spend more than £14m but reportedly Arsenal wants £22m for their player whose contract is running out in the next summer and the Londoners would not want to let their player for anything.
Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, all the leagues across Europe have been suspended with Premier League in England has been postponed till 30th April. This has been a very average season for Arsenal but since Mikel Arteta took over from Unai Emery, there have been better results and Arteta’s men were ninth in the Premier League, with five points behind with a game in hand to Manchester United who was at fifth.
