Manchester United and their fans were all smiles and very happy at Jose Mourinho's investment when he brought in one certain Armenian known as Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of 40 million euros. We all thought that he was going to bring Manchester United's old glory days back and we got a glimpse of him when he scored a fantastic goal in Manchester United's 4-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund in a friendly.
Fast forward to the recent Premier League season and Mkhitaryan started finding life tough, not featuring in Mourinho's recent plans until he got his chance against Hull City in which he dominated them with the little minutes he saw on the pitch. Everybody started praising him for his cameo appearance and expected more from the Armenian captain.
All didn't go well for Mkhitaryan when the international break came and he had to go and play for Armenia. He was injured in the match and was forced off. He recovered quickly ahead of the Manchester derby but some would say that the derby came too soon for him. That was his worst performance in a Manchester United shirt. People started doubting him but always kept faith in him as they all knew the Henrikh Mkhitaryan who amassed 140 appearances and scored 41 goals for Borussia Dortmund after joining them in 2013. He registered 23 goals and an impressive 32 assists across all competitions last season for Borussia Dortmund and was voted Bundesliga Player of the Season for 2015/2016 in a poll of his fellow professionals. He was also named in the Team of the Season following votes by the players' union in Germany, VDV. We all knew that it was a matter of time before he came good.
Mourinho practically made him a stadium warmer before making him a bench warmer but Henrikh Mkhitaryan was not deterred. He trained harder to the extent of even training alone to make sure he got a starting berth in the team. He finally got his chance against Feyenoord Rotterdam and my word he didn't disappoint. His mentality was strong enough and he help Manchester United breeze past them.
Then came an EFL Cup tie with West Ham United. Manchester United were extremely unhappy after Mourinho left him out of the starting line up in the league to face West Ham. He later came on and almost got a goal but it was too little too late. He took his chance in the EFL Cup and practically sent West Ham United packing with two assists in a 4-1 demolition. He now had a man of the match performance against West Ham and also grabbed the second MOTM award in the 1-1 draw against Everton. He continued with his fine form and grabbed another MOTM award, this time against Zorya Luhansk in the Europa League. He now has 3 MOTM awards in just 3 starts. He is now following in the footsteps of Eric Bailly who won the MOTM award in almost every match he played.
He (Mkhitaryan) grabbed a wonderful solo goal against Zorya and he hopes to replicate that in the Premier League by scoring at Old Trafford and we all hope that he will do that against Spurs and lift Manchester United's gloomy Premier League campaign. Let us just hope for the best for Manchester United and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
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