Inter midfielder Henrikh Hamlet Mkhitaryan sits at the intersection of two compelling stories this September: a club running at a pace that Tuttosport has already framed as scudetto-worthy, and a veteran of 37 whose place in that rhythm is being rationed rather than guaranteed. One Serie A appearance this season, a rating of 6.90, no goals, no assists — the numbers are thin, but the context around them is not.
The Nerazzurri's position makes the scarcity of Mkhitaryan's minutes feel more pointed. Cristian Chivu's Inter sit second in Serie A with 12 points from four matches, four wins from four, 13 goals scored. That is not a squad in transition or a team managing its way through an awkward fixture list. It is a machine in motion, and Chivu — by multiple accounts — has built it with two capable players for every position. That depth is the club's greatest asset and, for Mkhitaryan, its most direct challenge.
An AI overall of 74 out of 100 is a respectable figure for a midfielder at this stage of a career, but it is also a number that invites honest scrutiny. At 37, Mkhitaryan is not being asked to reinvent himself; he is being asked to remain useful within a system that does not need to accommodate him. The distinction matters. A player who earns his minutes through clarity of role and reliability of execution is an asset. A player who earns them through sentiment is a liability. Nothing in the available evidence suggests Chivu is operating on sentiment.
The upcoming fixture against Roma — a club with its own injury concerns heading into the match — gives Chivu a decision worth watching. Inter's attacking output across four matches has been substantial, and the midfield engine behind that production will face a genuine test against a Roma side managed by a coach with a well-documented appetite for pressing and positional disruption. Whether Mkhitaryan features, and for how long, will say something about how Chivu reads the Armenian's current condition relative to the demands of a top-four opponent.
Genoa, meanwhile, await Inter in the cup after eliminating Sudtirol, which means Chivu's squad management will extend beyond the league in the weeks ahead. Cup fixtures have historically offered veterans like Mkhitaryan a different kind of relevance — not rotation for its own sake, but rotation with purpose, where experience in tight moments carries weight that raw athleticism cannot always replicate.
One appearance into a season that Inter are already treating as a title campaign, Mkhitaryan's contribution will be measured in the margins: the pass that shifts a block, the press that forces an error, the 20 minutes that preserve a lead. That is not a diminished role. It is a precise one, and precision, at 37, is the only currency that holds its value.