The last thing Arsenal fans wanted right now, after another underwhelming result in the Premier League, was a heavy dose of irony.
But as the ten-man Gunners limped across the line at Elland Road, snatching a point they scarcely deserved after hanging on against relentless Leeds United side who pounded the woodwork like Tyson Fury on a punchbag, Henrikh Mkhitaryan was sending another brutal message to his old employers.
It is around eight hours now since Arsenal found the back of the net from open play and, barring the odd Bukayo Saka chance, that miserable run never looked like coming to an end in West Yorkshire.
It’s fair to say Mkhitaryan is not suffering from a similar problem.
As the ball dropped from the sky at the Stadio Olimpico, with 32 minutes on the clock, there was only one though in the Armenian’s mind.
A man in such supreme form was never going to pass up such an oppotunity and, surely enough, Mkhitaryan connected with a clatter and sent the ball flying into Parma’s net from 25 yards out.
It might not have been Mkhitaryan’s greatest goal of all time (the number one spot will forever belong to that scorpion kick against Sunderland) but it was pretty special – the sort of inspired, out-of-the-blue brilliance no Arsenal player seems capable of at the moment.
Eight minutes later, Mkhitaryan had his second, slamming home a Rick Karsdorp cross after drifting into the six-yard box, a la peak-Aubameyang.
Following on from his hat-trick in Genoa, the former Dortmund winger now has six goals in his last three games.
For context, the man Arsenal signed to replace Mkhitaryan has scored six in his last 23. We are just weeks into Willian’s three-year contract and already it feels like money down the drain with the Brazilian lost and, in his own words, a little frustrated in Mikel Arteta’s rigid system.
While Mkhitaryan was firing 25-yard volleys into the top corner, Willian was being hauled off at the break after another anonymous performance.
At the time, Arsenal’s decision to terminate the contract of an underperforming, unhappy attacker and replace him with a proven Premier League star – one who was perhaps Chelsea’s finest performer as recently as 2019/20 – looked an inspired bit of business.
How things have changed.
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