Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez already out of sight, out of mind

It was said that Arsenal would never be able to get over the loss of Alexis Sanchez. That wasn’t only wrong, it may have turned out to be the opposite.

Arsenal’s “superstar” years were characterized by an over-dependence on Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. So much over-dependence that many wondered if the club would ever be able to recover from losing either one.

Alexis Sanchez was the bigger piece for the majority of the partnership. He did everything, goals, assists, all of it. Ozil was just a bit

I realize it’s a bit counter-intuitive to say that someone is out of sight and out of mind while I simultaneously write about him, but you see, what happened is, I actually thought about him in my eternal headline combing for anything Arsenal.

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And that’s when it occurred to me that I hadn’t thought about Alexis at all since the transfer went through. The extent that I have thought about him this time is simply that – I don’t think the club misses him at all.

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Even with the horrific North London Derby still in mind, I don’t think that Alexis would have done anything to change the fate of the match. If anything, he would have done his token drilling himself into the ground and losing possession.

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But I’m not writing this to poke at Alexis. I’m simply pointing out how capable this club actually was of replacing a star player. Patrick Vieira? Still not replaced. Cesc Fabregas? Half a decade without being replaced. Robin van Persie? Maybe he is finally now replaced.

But Alexis was replaced instantaneously with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and, a bit later, that was compounded on by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. That has literally never happened before in the recent history of this club. Huge voids have been left unattended, or replaced on a budget that usually ends up going nowhere fast.

Not only was Alexis replaced. He was replaced with overkill, making the team even better than they were before him. And that is so very un-Arsenal like that it has to lend credence to the belief that the team has turned over a new leaf and these ‘financial problems’ could finally be behind us.

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So excuse me while I take this moment to reminisce that we so easily put such a big superstar behind us. The only way to go now is forward. Which is kind of a good way to go.