Wayne Rooney believes Henrikh Mkhitaryan can thrive at Arsenal due to their style of player.

Rooney was a teammate of Mkhitaryan when the two were at Manchester United during the 2016/17 season.

He was aware of the Armenian’s talents, and feels he will do well at Arsenal now that he’s a team that will play to his strengths.

“I think he is (in a place where he can thrive),” Rooney said on Sky Sports (via the Daily Star).

“I’ve seen it last season in training a lot, he’s a very talented player.

“I think at Manchester United he didn’t get the freedom he really wanted to go and perform which he had at Dortmund.

“It was a different style of play to what Dortmund played.

“At Arsenal I think he will have players around him running off the ball, taking the ball, and he will create goals and he will score goals.

“So I really do think he will kick on.”

Mkhitaryan enjoyed a brilliant home debut against Everton by setting up three of Arsenal’s five goals.

The popular theory is that he will do well at Arsenal due to the freedom he will receive.

He had good spells at United as well, but struggled when he was given extra defensive responsibility by Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho was also critical of the midfielder’s consistency.

It’s early days at Arsenal, but we know Arsene Wenger isn’t as particular about defending as Mourinho is.

Mkhitaryan isn’t going to be asked to track full backs all game.

Nor will his bad games be punished by being dropped or singled out in the press.

The environment at Arsenal seems to be the right one for him.

We’ll now have to see if that results in more stellar performances from him.