Where does Henrikh Mkhitaryan fit into Arsenal's grand plans?

Mkhitaryan has been at his best in teams that gegenpress, able to use his speed of thought and and pace on and off the ball to exploit temporarily exposed defences. Man Utd don't play like this and Mkhitaryan's individual style seems to clash with Mourinho's vision - he has been guilty of holding onto the ball longer than a counter-attacking team can allow and Mourinho's attempts to fix this have ended up making him a worse player.

At Arsenal he should have time on the ball. In addition, thanks to Mesut Ozil being there, he won't be the only central attacking midfielder - at Dortmund, his best performances came when tag-teaming with Shinji Kagawa, who took the role of chief creator.

Mourinho has made players like Deco and Mesut Ozil buy into his ideas in past but doesn't have a great record overall with reducing the creative influence of number 10s (Kevin De Bruyne the most obvious recent example).

He wants his team to win the ball near the halfway line and break quickly, which made Mkhitaryan an ideal candidate for the role of number 10. He's lightning quick and therefore - in theory - more dangerous on the counter-attack than someone like Juan Mata, who can't carry the ball as quickly. The problem seems to be that, simply, Mkhitaryan likes having the ball and wants to play attacking football.

Adding to the Arsenal mentality

"My favourite team is Arsenal," Mkhitaryan told Uefa's website in 2009. "I like their attacking play and fast style. Moreover, Arsene Wenger puts faith in young players while demanding results at the same time. I like that and want to play there one day."

At Man Utd he had a tendency to go missing and Wenger will need to address this. Whether through a lack of confidence or from failing to understand his Man Utd teammates (or vice versa), he hasn't ever seemed to really dominate the position he has been deployed in. His best performances for clubs in the past have been as a supporting attacking midfielder - not the focal point. 

Mkhitaryan won Man of the Match in a 4-0 win over Swansea in August, making short linking passes without ever really affecting play... until the final 10 minutes when he ended up providing two assists.

With Swansea doing well to keep Man Utd quiet with the score only 1-0, Martial came on for Rashford as a substitute and seemed keen to attack in the central areas that Mkhitaryan was supposed to be in. The two started running into each other.

Above, United win the ball high up the pitch and Martial carries it into the 10 space. Mkhitaryan doesn't peel away to the right - he either doesn't want to, or has been told/thinks that the central area is his turf. Mourinho teams tend not to feature players switching positions fluidly.

It ends well though, and Martial ends up running into Mkhitaryan, who shows terrific vision to see and hit a quick pass to Lukaku to score.

Throughout that match, Mkhitaryan didn't do much other than link short passes for others to take forward. He wants to keep the ball and build passing moves but that isn't Mourinho. After the break Mkhitaryan was more direct and seemed focused on getting forward quickly, forcing a few shots on goal that rolled harmlessly wide.

After that win, his performances declined to the point that his influence on games became non-existent. In a 1-0 away win over Southampton he had even less of the ball:

And barely even featured against Chelsea, hauled off in the 62nd minute.

This was after being subbed at half-time in the previous match. He hasn't been the same player since.

"You can forget that this is a player that has very high expectations of himself," ex-manager Klopp has said of Mkhitaryan. "That means he might be disappointed in himself even after playing well."

Playing poorly seems to affect Mkhitaryan's confidence more than others and a good run of form can be interrupted rather too easily. Mourinho likes players who are self driven, have that ruthless desire to win and are prepared to work all day for the greater good in a smash and grab.

Wenger and Mkhitaryan prefer to control games with the ball. It makes creative players prosper and under Wenger's management, Mkhitaryan will be given ample opportunity to make mistakes. Wenger forgives, which is why so many creative players have prospered at Arsenal while so many have fallen away under Mourinho's demands.

Mkhitaryan could and should be an excellent Arsenal player.