Will Mkhitaryan follow in the footsteps of De Bruyne and Salah to prove Mourinho wrong?

Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were both in line this week to make their Premier League debuts for their Manchester United and Arsenal sides respectively following an unprecedented January transfer window straight swap deal. While Mkhitaryan came on from the bench in a disappointing loss against Swansea, Sanchez will want to hit the ground running against Spurs.

Mkhitaryan clearly struggled to win over Jose Mourinho during his 18-month stint in Manchester. After a bright start to the season with a goal and 5 assists by mid-September, Mkhitaryan’s performances in a Manchester United shirt dipped alarmingly soon after.

A largely underwhelming performance at home to Spurs on 23 October and Mkhitaryan was suddenly out of the team being overlooked completely by Mourinho from match day squads. Although he would return to the side and feature more regularly throughout December, Mkhitaryan’s struggles on the pitch continued. His final Premier League start against Southampton on 30 December typified his overall career for United having been subbed after 65 minutes and cruelly booed off by some sections of the Old Trafford stadium.

His penultimate appearance in a United shirt would be the FA Cup third tie against Derby County on 5 January 2018 – Mkhitaryan spent the majority of the first half looking like a player devoid of confidence and again, was hauled off by Mourinho.

Mkhitaryan is clearly a talented footballer having joined United in the summer of 2016 bringing along an impressive collection of eye-catching stats - 23 goals and 32 assists from 52 appearances in his final season at Borussia Dortmund.

Like Shinji Kagawa and Bastian Schweinsteiger before him, Mkhitaryan becomes another Bundelisga acquisition enduring a disappointing and short-lived United career. He will undoubtedly want to prove his critics wrong as Arsenal’s new attacking midfielder and Sanchez’s replacement. He must look into replicating the form he displayed for United mid-way into the 2016-17 season.

Mkhitaryan appeared to save his best performances in a United shirt during last season’s UEFA Europa League campaign. The Armenian international capped an excellent season in Europe scoring the defining goal in the final and ending the season with 6 goals.

Mkhitaryan was forced to compete with the likes of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, and Jesse Lingard, thereby limiting his appearances in the league for Man United during the 2016-17 season.

Mkhitaryan will no doubt be given a further a chance to shine in the Europa League and will be hoping to build an instant rapport with Arsenal’s senior players including Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere, and Alexandre Lacazette.

Jose Mourinho has in the past sold players who have gone on to make him regret through their performances. Some argue that Mourinho’s decision to spend £75 million on Lukaku last summer was his way of acknowledging an error in overlooking the Belgian No. 9 during his second stint as Chelsea boss.

Kevin De Bruyne barely featured during the 2013-14 season for Chelsea under Jose Mourinho before being shipped to Wolfsburg and is now arguably the best midfielder in the Premier League. Mohammed Salah has also returned to England and banged in the goals and assists for Liverpool.

Mkhitaryan would definitely want to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned players and at Arsenal, he will definitely have all the opportunities he needs to prove Jose Mourinho wrong.

With reports suggesting Mkhitaryan's former teammate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is on the verge of joining Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund, Mkhitaryan’s switch to the Emirates may well prove to be a timely break and given his potential, we might see a resurgence in the performances of the Armenian international.