Him again. That man. Arsenal’s salvation. Where would we be without him? Bottom? Picked up a stat courtesy of Squaka: Alexis has been involved in 54.5% of Arsenal’s Premier League goals when he’s played. It works out as four goals and two assists. And it’s also a horrifying revelation of the shallow tally of goals we’ve scored this season; even after buying a world-class attacker and Danny Welbeck, we seem to really struggle to demolish teams and rack up those goals. I miss the days where we could go to a lower table team and put them to the sword; I’m talking four, five, six nil. Those days seem lost. But we do still have Alexis, and he is still the shining light in this bleak campaign. He is world class by definition and it’s showing every time he pulls on that shirt, whether through work rate, skill, our lethal finishing. He is money well spent, and Wenger must be given praise for bringing him to this soft club. Is that harsh? I don’t think so. We are too soft. We get bullied too often. We let referees walk all over us and let players kick our bones out of place; we need power and aggression, and we need it now. At least Alexis shows it on the attacking side of things with his sheer hunger. He was the only player who proved any amount of worth against Anderlecht (ANDERLECHT!) and the only player to retrieve the ball from the back of the net when Gibbs started the ridiculous and completely bizarre comeback. Sanchez is a winner, in a team where there are not many. It’s depressing to say, but it’s the hard truth, and Wenger must start accounting for that.
He marginally changed things at Sunderland. Sanchez started through the middle, behind Welbeck, and he scored twice; that’s all we can say about the performance of the team as whole. It was a routine lacklustre display from everybody except Alexis. (Again. Maybe forever.) He snapped at poor Wes Brown’s heels and ran through on goal before coolly chipping the comical Mannone. It was a nothing goal, but Alexis made it that extra bit special. His second was sort of sheepishly put in the back of the net because he couldn’t believe what the keeper was doing. But he did it, because he wants to win, and he is the only player out there who looks like they’re giving a damn. The first substitution came after Gibbs was limping around for a good ten minutes before a change was made, probably extending the severity of his injury. Incompetence. Again. Ramsey came on for the last five minutes, and to what point? Campbell is fresh, needs games, so does Rosicky, (who signed a new contract to stay with the club and has been completely disregarded so far, as has Campbell). Podolski is leaving whenever he gets the sniff of an exit so giving him game time doesn’t really amount to much. I don’t understand anything Wenger does anymore; his actions have little effect and never feel planned, because they aren’t. We went back to 2 3 1 today, because of injuries and fear of injuries, I don’t think Wenger wanted this, but he realised he couldn’t play his horrid 1 4 1 formation with two ageing performers in Arteta and Flamini. Arsenal are barely breathing at the moment, struggling in the dark mess that Wenger and Co. have created.
Also, why extended Rosicky’s contract after a good season and not play him when the injuries and tired legs mount up?
Anyway, another game goes into the forgotten section of this season, and it is another game that belongs to our only current star performer that is Alexis Sanchez. Other players need to start stepping up because I’m running out of praise for this super star, and soon there won’t be anything to say, other than: Alexis played well.
Where are our Arsenal players?