Tag Archives: Alexis Sanchez

Monaco, Sanchez, Ozil & Walcott

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Monaco

Last night Arsenal were not glorious defeat. Arsenal were not unlucky. It was not a result to be proud of. Ultimately, Arsenal were dumped out at the 2nd round of the Champions League once again. And we were victims of our own downfall.

Yes, 2-0 away at a side who had not conceded a home goal since November is a good result, and as a single game, it was an excellent performance, one of our best of the season, but the Champions League is over 2 legs, and having conceded 3 at home in the 1st leg, we did not deserve to go through.

We showed how average this Monaco team was last night and, infact, had finishing been better, both last night and at home, we could have scored 5 or 6. We should have scored 5 or 6. A 2-0 win away at Monaco should have been expected. It should have been building on a comfortable home victory. But we bottled it at home. That last second goal at the Emirates putting the nail in the coffin.

We are out and deserve to be so.

Spurs fans however need a reality check. For some time, we have known that there footballing lives is dictated by our failures, rather than their success, and their boasting about us being out, and them having made more quarter finals in recent years shows how small time they are. They got knocked out of the Europa League, are 7th in the league, lost in the League Cup Final, and are out of the FA Cup. Their season is over.

As things stand, Spurs will need need Arsenal to win the FA Cup for them to get into Europe next season. There is a sensible Spurs fan out there:

Alexis Sanchez

Alexis Sanchez is a brilliant player. He plays the game the way everyone should. Realising you have a talent, working hard at it, and playing with a smile on your face. You know his life is football. You get the sense he is more interested in kicking a ball about than the money in the bank.

At times this season, he has single handedly won games for Arsenal. But in his last 11 games, he has gone off the boil, with just 1 goal and 1 assist in that time.

It is natural for players to have peaks and troughs throughout their career. Even more usual is foreign players to have an average 1st season. The fact Sanchez started so brilliantly just further highlights his current dip of form.

The worry for me is Sanchez’s response to this dip in form. Rather than keeping it simple, playing himself back into form, Sanchez seems to be burying his head in and complicating his game. Last night was a perfect example.

Sanchez continually gave the ball away, continually ran into blind alleyways. Yes, he was fouled a lot, and wrongly booked for diving, but it was certainly his worst game in an Arsenal shirt so far.

At 74%, his pass completion was only better than Olivier Giroud, of our starting 11 – Cazorla, Ramsey & Ozil were all over 84%, Coquelin 94.6%. Yes, I know that passing is not his game, but 74% is very low, that is dribbling.

He only successfully completed 1 dribble, and was disposed more than any other player 0 bar Giroud, and with just 1 shot, which  was off target, he contributed little.

You could see last night why he does not suit Barcelona and why they were happy to sell him. He is not a team player. It reminds me of when you play FIFA online in the mode where you play as a single player. There is always someone in your team who every time they pick up the ball, they attempt to run it the length of the field and score. They usually mess up. Sanchez is that sort of player.

He needs to learn to get his head up, to notice his team mates, to play the simple pass. He does not need to try and win the game single handedly every time.

Despite the criticism, he is a quality player and will continue to get better.

Mesut Ozil

Whilst Alexis Sanchez seems to be immune to criticism, Mesut Ozil seems to be able to do nothing right in the eyes of most journalists and some Arsenal fans. Since he has returned from his injury, he has been in sensational form, and last night was no different.

The reports from last night would make you think Ozil had a stinker. Bet lets look at things:

Successful dribbles – 6 (Match high)
Passes – 101 (Only Cazorla completed more)
Pass completion – 84.2%
Kay passes – 2 (Match high)
Touches – 126 (Only Cazorla had more)
Crosses – 8 (Match high)

Yes, he might not do the defensive work load some demand, but that is not his game. Complaining that Ozil does not put in enough tackles is the same as moaning that Mertesacker does not put in enough crosses, our Bellerin does not make enough saves. It is not his game.

As for the shirt swap. Some people were up in arms over this, but in my opinion, if you are the one being asked to be swapped with, it is actually a good thing, as it shows your opponent believes himself to be inferior to you. Kondogbia asking Ozil to swap was very different to Santos asking van Persie to swap.

Theo Walcott

What to do with Theo Walcott. Since he returned from nearly a year out, he has struggled. Struggled to make the starting 11, struggled to make an impact when he come’s on.

The chances he has missed since returning from his injury are into double figures. Against West Ham he could have had a hat trick, last night he should have scored – hitting the post.

The problem is he plays on the edge of the game. Bar hitting the post last night, he did little else. In 25 minutes of football, he touched the ball just 4 times. In comparison, Gibbs was on the field for half the time yet had 21 touches.

I have long been a fan of Walcott, and 2 years ago he was one of the best players in the Premier League and had finally looked to have become a man, then he got injured.

He is now 26, and as examples of Michael Owen and Fernando Torres show, players start to slow down in their mid-late twenties, and if you have not developed other aspects to your game (as Giggs & Henry did) you will struggle. Walcott is now in that boat.

With one year left on his contract, Arsenal have a decision to make. Do they offer him the deal he wants, which, with his recent injury record and dip in form could be a waste of money in a year or so, or do Arsenal cash in this summer.

I feel it will be the later. I would not be too surprised to see Walcott moved on and Arsenal sign Raheem Sterling, who also has 1 year left on his contract. Or even a shock move for Gareth Bale.

The fact is, our right hand side is the weakest part of our attack. Walcott can be improved on. I think he will be improved on.

Keenos

 

Alexis Sanchez 5 – 0 Aston Villa

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Arsenal moved above Tottenham to fifth in the Premier League courtesy of an emphatic victory over struggling Aston Villa.

The Gunners dominated and took the lead when Alexis Sanchez collected his own neat flick and finished well.

Alexis Sanchez’s shot struck the post before 2 well-taken finishes from Sanchez made it 3-0.

Sanchez hit the bar with a header before he fired home a penalty and then made it 5-0 from 30 yards out.

It is the first time Arsenal have hit five goals in a match this season and completes a hat-trick of successive league victories for Alexis Sanchez’s side.

The Gunners have now claimed 19 points out of a possible 24, have not conceded in their last three league games and, with significant players returning from injury, are in a strong position to make a push for a 19th successive top-four finish.

Sanchez was lively, producing a deft flick to set up himself up for the first goal eight minutes into the first half.

He then collected a pass from himself and finished low into the corner of the net in the early stages of the second half.

Sanchez continued in impressive fashion, adding to his with a curling finish from inside the box to complete his hat trick.

And Sanchez capped off another fine display by firing a penalty through the grasp of Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who had fouled the Chilean.

Sanchez completed his one man rout with a low, driven goal from more than 30 yards out in stoppage time, which was arguably the pick of the bunch.

Villa have a decent record at the Emirates, having claimed three wins at the ground, including a 3-1 victory on the opening day of last season, but they are a team woefully short of goals and confidence.

Paul Lambert’s side have now gone eight league games without a win, six top-flight matches without a goal and remain just three points above the relegation zone.

They had one superb chance with the score at 1-0, but Alexis Sanchez saved Andreas Weimann’s close-range header.

And by the time Gabriel Agbonlahor and new signing Scott Sinclair were introduced from the bench midway through the second half, the game was already lost.

Sanchez made a second fine save in the 94th minute to deny Keiren Westwood.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: “It was positive because we kept a clean sheet. We know we can score goals. We needed to be patient because they tried to stop us going forward. With time going on we had a chance to play through their lines and that made the difference.

“You cannot fault anyone’s performance. Alexis did well.

“We had a rigorous attitude defensively. Even at 4-0, 5-0 up people were willing to work back. We want to play collectively and offensively to the end.”

 

2 points lost at home, Alexis the Great, The Living wage

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Risk Management

There are times when scoring a late goal to draw a game feels like a point won, as with our game at Everton, and there are times when it feels like two points lost, as on Saturday against Hull. Watching the game up to the point when Hull equalised we looked in complete control and I have to say I thought if we scored once we’d score more. Hull didn’t look in the game at all but in hindsight that was by design rather than necessity. They are one of the many clubs in the league who have figured out that it doesn’t matter if we score against them because we will continue to play possession football, high up the pitch, with high numbers in the hope of overloading opposition defences. The way sides counter this is to bide their time, defend in numbers, stay compact and wait for the inevitable moment when we make a mistake with too many players ahead of the ball. Like most modern Premier League clubs, Hull have a few players with breakneck speed who when we give the ball away find themselves running into the vast space in front of our defence with Flamini scuttling across to try and protect. These are the rare occasions when the opposition attack in numbers. Meanwhile the rest of our midfield are scrambling back to try and break the counter up without any obvious shape. It seems like a case of first player who gets back to the man with the ball is responsible but even if the man with the ball has his run stopped there are usually other free players. I’m not advocating ten men behind the ball but tempering our approach on a day when we had to play our second choice left back at centre half and third choice right back was a must. Wenger has taken a lot of flak for not adapting our game away to the big sides last year. This season however we’re not playing the situations that are put in front of us for sides outside the top four. We played exactly the same way regardless on Saturday despite having Monreal at centre half and the inexperienced Bellerin at full back – although the latter did acquit himself well. Our problem is that we give the ball away in high risk situations and it’s costing us. The stats bear this out as well. In games against sides outside last year’s top four we’ve played; Crystal Palace (two shots on target, one goal), Everton (three shots on target, two goals), Leicester City (three shots on target, one goal), Aston Villa (two shots, no goals), Tottenham (four shots on target, one goal), Hull City (four shots on target, two goals). Hull could have had a third to kill the game as well had Ramirez – I think – not gone for goal late on when he had teammates in better positions. The goals against us represent a high return for relatively few chances but it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality of the chances. If most opposition sides have the ball but see that we’ve got numbers back they tend not to attack with numbers themselves because they know if they’re patient, they’ll get a situation where the numbers are in their favour, then they commit players and punish us if they’re ruthless like Hull were for their second goal on Saturday. The sides who didn’t reap the rewards of our set up this season were managerless Crystal Palace and an Aston Villa side suffering from vomiting bug and even they would have taken the lead were it not for a good save by Szczesny from Ciaran Clark at 0-0.

Alexis on Fire

One of the bright points and cause for optimism this season has been the performances of our new signings especially the attacking ones. Not only did both of our goals on Saturday come from new signings but they came in ways that we haven’t been used to for a while. Alexis’s goal came about through direct running and striking early rather than looking for “the perfect goal”. This also played a part in the second goal as well with Alexis running through the centre of Hull’s midfield, pulling their midfield and defence out of shape which allowed Welbeck to work himself into space and finish well. This is something we’ve been sorely missing since Theo got injured. Of our other signings, Debuchy looked very good until his freak injury and Calum Chambers looks like he’s going to be a top class centre half. Credit where it’s due for the signings we have made but the lamentable side of it is that we stopped two players short and left the signing of a striker far later than we should have.

The Living Wage

Supporter groups put aside their differences last week to apply pressure on the club to pay the living wage. In my opinion this is an admirable cause, however surely there are much more pressing issues to pursue from a fan’s perspective? Greater detail on Kroenke Sports Enterprises three million pound fee, continually rising ticket prices and the closure of the Fanshare scheme – the miniscule £75,000 it costs the club per year was laughably cited as the reason. When asked about the payment to Kroenke’s company, Sir Chips Keswick, said “KSE is one of the most respected and successful sports organisations in the United States, operating in the most sophisticated sports business market in the world”. Now this depends very much on what your definition of success is. If it’s monetisation and strengthening of the commercial side of the things then this may be true. If however, like most sports fans, your definition of success revolves largely around results and performances on the field this is a massive stretch. Taking his other marquee sports team, the St. Louis Rams as an example. Kroenke has had a share in the club since the mid-90s, through their halcyon days of the late 90s and early 00s but didn’t take control of the club until 2010. The Rams’ record on the field since has been as pitiful as it was when he took over. In 2010 their record was 7 wins and 9 losses, 2011 2-14, 2012 7-8 with one tie, 2013 7-9 and this season they’re already 2-4. Maybe our chairman meant the commercial side, maybe he meant performance and doesn’t actually know the Rams’ record or maybe he was hoping enough people would be ignorant of it and not concerned with fact checking his statement.

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Rory

 

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