It seems this season everyone has their own idea on how Alexis is performing at centre forward, and now club legend Sol Campbell has shared his opinion.
Speaking exclusively to 888sport, the 42-year-old gave his thoughts on Wenger’s bold decision to convert Alexis Sanchez into a centre forward for the 2016/17 campaign.
Campbell, who was a key player at the heart of defence during the Invincibles season, believes Wenger is finally trying something new with the attacking options and it’s paying off.
Alexis already has eight goals to his name in all competitions and is breathing down the neck of Premier League top goalscorer Diego Costa with six goals in the league.
Wenger has been criticised in the past for never going out and paying big money for a world-class striker, but Campbell believes the answer was sitting inside the club all along.
Sol Campbell, speaking exclusively to 888sport,
Maybe Arsene doesn’t want an out-and-out centre-forward this year. Maybe that’s the key and he wants to mix things up, to have players in the groove.
While you’re banging in the goals why go to systems? Sometimes it needs someone to look at these guys and allow them to be free and see how long it goes.
If it doesn’t go the whole season then there is always Giroud to come in and change the dynamic. You can be too structured sometimes and it’s better to go with the flow.
We’ve definitely seen early signs of how Wenger can utilise Giroud as a ‘Plan B’ option, after Sunderland began to get comfortable with the way Arsenal continued to press.
Giroud came on and instantly made an impact scoring twice with his first two touches to leave Arsenal cruising to another three points.
Many teams began to suss Arsenal out last year, piling bodies on to Alexis and Ozil, but with the contrast in playing style Wenger now has two options to throw into the centre forward role.
However, if Giroud keeps scoring – he’ll be saying, ’you have to start me’. Or rather he won’t have to knock at the door, by keep making an impact and being solid all the way through that will change people’s perceptions within the club’s football hierarchy.
He needs to force his way in there. For Arsene this is what he needs. Competition breeds success.
I think Campbell has summed it up perfectly, we’ve already seen how the danger of losing your place in midfield is helping the likes of Walcott and Iwobi to up their game.
Now that Giroud is back to full fitness he won’t be ready to settle for a place on the bench and therefore we should start to see him adding more to his game to challenge Alexis.
Read the full 888sport interview with Sol Campbell, including how in the groove Sanchez is the man to fire Arsenal to the title.