Finally, a convincing display in front of the Arsenal faithful arose in the Premier League on Saturday. Despite Burnley’s persistence, defensive mindset and time-wasting (!) it would take Arsenal 70 minutes to breakthrough the Foxes, but when they did it would all be uphill from there. Burnley manager Sean Dyche hit the nail on the head with his comments after the game “these teams, when they smell blood that’s it” and smell blood we did. Arsenal dominated the game, playing cruise-control football around the Emirates but were misfiring in front of goal. A seemingly typical performance in truth, but there were certainly some things the fans would learn from this triumph.
1) The untouchable Alexis Sanchez is proving to be a world beater
Well Arsenal fans probably knew this weeks ago, but no one would have expected this fine start. Dubbed the ‘new Suarez’ in midweek by journalists, I think it’s fair to say there are similarities, also picked up by Wenger, but the Chilean is an individual with each performance he makes for the Gunners. He began the game brightly. having scored 8 goals already this season and proving to be the embodiment of a match-winner. Three first half chances, all individually created, sailed past the post or were denied well by Heaton, a keeper who was having his typical ‘Emirates Man of the Match Performance’ every lower-positioned keeper somewhat makes against us. 70 minutes gone, and a teasing cross comes in from the trooping Calum Chambers and like a salmon out of the water, up leapt Alexis Sanchez to nod home a brave header to send the Emirates into up-roar. He wasn’t finished there either, despite surprisingly not playing a part in Chambers goal, he snuck onto the end of an inviting cross from Gibbs, weaving in and out of two defenders the South American way and cooly slotting home. It was a game in the park for Sanchez, who led Arsenal once more to a talisman-inspired victory. Now playing as a second striker behind Welbeck, he seems to be most effective in this role, exploding in every game and fighting to the last minute. A born and bred match-winner, and yes, he’s ours.