Arsenal Should Not be Concerned with Potentially Missing Alexis Sanchez

According to Arsene Wenger (via SkySports), Arsenal may be without their “star man” to start the 2015/16 season. Thanks to the Copa America, Chile has a prime opportunity to progress deep into the competition. Needless to say, La Rojas of Chile need their key man, who just so happens to be the same key man that Arsenal need. The deal that Arsene Wenger agreed upon with the Chilean Football Federation permits Alexis Sanchez to play for La Rojas as long as their cup run is alive.

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Arsene Wenger says it will be very bad if Chile go far in the cup, when asked how it would effect Arsenal, he said “that is not good news (for Arsenal) because they (Chile) finish very late and if they go very far, he will miss the start of the season” (SkySports).

To a certain extent, he’s right. Alexis Sanchez was the main reason that Arsenal stayed relevant in the first half of the season. He was putting up goals at a fever pace and was quite simply unstoppable, as defenses looked helpless to stop him. He’s grown to love the club and gives his all day-in and day-out.

But on the other hand, in the second half of the season, his goal scoring tallies dropped. Don’t mistake that for a drop in quality, though (although he did have one of those after his injury). His goals fell off because Olivier Giroud came back more anxious to score than anyone – and he did just that.

Hopefully we won’t be without Alexis Sanchez at the start of the season. We saw what an effect the World Cup had on our German contingent (particularly Mesut Ozil) and it wasn’t pleasant. Ozil looked sluggish for far longer than we could have expected.

However, Alexis Sanchez is a different kind of player. He is constantly working and constantly playing (the two are synonymous in his book). No matter how far he goes with La Rojas, he’ll come back for Arsenal as ready as ever to take the Gunners to glory.

And not only that, but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be healthy again and he’ll have a golden chance to get unhindered playing time with the first team in Alexis Sanchez’s place, should it be necessary.

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The Ox is a star in the making, he just needs to establish some consistency in the first team. Any time he does, he looks phenomenal, it’s just a matter of keeping healthy.

Alexis Sanchez won’t go through the same World Cup hangover that the German’s went through. If he does miss time, we have the Ox to cover and potentially any other signing we may make. So while Arsene Wenger is right to be worried about missing his prized signing, he shouldn’t be worried about the effect it will have on this team.

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