Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez Got Exactly What He Needed

Arsenal lost and well, that sucks. But Barcelona gave Arsenal the greatest secondary gift available. They woke up Alexis Sanchez. Bring on the EPL.

Arsenal’s recent sputtering form has come down to a lack of creativity up front. They snapped out of their Premier League goalless drought but the offense has still not been all that convincing. Especially not when considering how many weapons they have.

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Olivier Giroud is a fantastic striker, but his worth is not seen solely in his ability to score. It is in his ability to create space for his team mates and hold up play. That strategy only works when he has enough quality around him to create space for and recently, he hasn’t.

I think we can all agree that one of the main things that has been missing from Arsenal’s attack lately is an in-form Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean is one of the primary benefactors from Ozil’s creativity and Giroud’s space occupation and without him, at least without him in form, his team mates have been having their efforts fall to less effective feet.

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With the mess of fixtures coming up, Arsenal needed Alexis to kick it into gear. The Premier League title depended on it.

Arsene Wenger was not the only one of the opinion that Alexis would rise to the occasion against his former club. That is absolutely what happened. Alexis was the man of the match hands down. His work ethic was out of this world. I’m going to hit you with some stats and you are going to marvel at how well he played. Ready? Break:

Four tackles. Four interceptions. Six completed dribbles. A measly one lost possession. 100% crossing accuracy (1/1). 50% long ball accuracy (2/4)(All stats via WhoScored).

Every single one of those numbers is at or better than his season’s average. So by that token, we can appreciate the fact that Alexis Sanchez is not only back, but he played his best game all season against the best team in the world. If we dare to speculate, that could mean that he is about to play at the highest level he has played at all season, right as the season is entering its crucial stages.

Every other opponent is going to look like child’s play to the Chilean mastermind. Luckily, Manchester United is next. Remember last time Alexis faced Manchester United?

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In that sense, this Barcelona match came precisely at the right time to kick start Arsenal’s Premier League title run. With that always being the primary objective, taking a bow out of the Champions League not only gives Arsenal one less thing to worry about, but it woke up their most effective goal scoring weapon as well. Call it a win-win from a loss.

Of course, Arsenal is not knocked out yet, so I will keep my mouth shut about that.

With a loss always the most likely result, the next best thing Arsenal could have hoped for is a kick start to Alexis Sanchez’s season and Barcelona provided that. Given that Alexis is a world class player, he is not going to sink back into poor form. He never has. It usually takes just one good performance and he latches on to a positive run of form for months.

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If Alexis can prolong his positive run of form and Arsenal win the title because of it, I think we need to send Barcelona a fruit basket.