Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez Needs Central Role

Alexis Sanchez should be played as a CAM on the opening day for Arsenal, as the other candidates are insufficient. The Chilean might revel in the opportunity.

With Arsenal’s creator-in-chief Mesut Ozil unavailable for the match against Liverpool on the opening day, multiple candidates have emerged to take the German maestros place in the side.

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The first and most popular candidate would have been Santi Cazorla. Having occupied the position in the 12-13 season, before Ozil’s arrival, he has experience in the role. He has a fairly excellent history, in fact, as he won Arsenal’s player of the year award in that season. Unfortunately, he also appears to be short on fitness for match day 1.

Second on the list would be Alex Iwobi. Having enjoyed a breakout season last year, most of his first-team appearances came in a wide role. However, he had also enjoyed success in his natural position, no. 10, during cup-fixtures. The drawback is he doesn’t have too much experience there with the starting XI. I would recommend that he gets bedded in against teams of less quality than Liverpool in the league.

In the most recent friendly, the Welshman Aaron Ramsey took up the position, where he played superbly for Wales in Euro 2016. Yet most fear that he cannot take up such a position for Arsenal, as he does not possess the guile in possession to suit our controlling game. This weakness of his might be particularly exploited by Jurgen Klopp’s GegenPress.  Also, Wenger has gone and confirmed that Ramsey’s best position is in deep midfield.

There are other options available, between shoehorning other first-teamers into central attacking midfield, or taking players from the youth ranks. But no such drastic step is required. The solution is simple: play Alexis Sanchez there.

I can already hear the scandalised shouts: but that’s shoehorning! No, it isn’t. Sanchez already has great experience playing in a more central role, whether as a foil for Antonio di Natale, or as CAM for the Chilean National Team. In fact, when Thierry Henry spoke of how he wanted Sanchez to partner Giroud as Griezmann did at Euro 2016, he envisaged Sanchez getting closer to the striker. As the No. 10 role would allow him to do.

For that matter, Sanchez has revelled in the exact same role for Arsenal before. In 14-15, during Ozil’s injury between October and January, Sanchez played as the central playmaker and enjoyed the best run of form ever in his career, scoring a flurry of goals, and establishing himself as the key player at Arsenal while others dropped like flies.

It is no surprise that Sanchez had this run of form while playing in behind the pacy Welbeck. Thriving in the space created by his runs, he terrorised defenders with his intelligence and dribbling. With Walcott likely to start at striker against Liverpool, Sanchez has the chance to capitalise in the same manner.

Sanchez’s excellent work rate can also be put to great effect. With the possibility that Xhaka might be surprised by the pace of the English game, Alexis’ tracking-back can help ease the transition. Also, with likely-to-start winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain prone to defensive errors, and Walcott’s work-rate abysmal, Sanchez will have a pivotal role in this regard.

Thus, there is a multitude of factors that make Sanchez the best candidate to start in the CAM role, for the benefit of both player and team.

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What do you think Arsenal fans? Would you go with Sanchez, or is there a better candidate available in the role? What is the best and worst we can hope for from the position on the opening day? Have your say in the comments below.