Arsenal Are Much More Than Alexis Sanchez And Mesut Ozil

Emmanuel Adebayor has stated that Arsenal over-reliant on Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. Arsene Wenger’s squad are far more than their two stars.

In chasing a Premier League title, managers must be able to, among many other important tasks, assemble deep and varied squads as they prepare to deal with the issues that fatigue and injuries can bring. It is something that has severely hampered Arsenal in the past.

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When top of the league, a crippling injury to Eduardo crippled the title hopes of the Gunners. In 2013, with Aaron Ramsey at the top of his game, the Welshman proceeded to miss nearly all of the second half of the year, seeing his team’s title challenge derail, only returning to score the extra-time winner against Hull in the FA Cup final.

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Both are prime examples of how injuries to key players – and not having sufficient cover for when those injuries come – can utterly halt the momentum of a successful team. This season, those two men are Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil and an injury would be difficult to deal with. Emmanuel Adebayor, in fact, believes that his former club are too reliant on the duo, highlighting the apparent lack of depth by comparing it to the blessings at league-leaders Chelsea:

"“Arsenal have a good team but if Sanchez gets injured I don’t know who they’ve got. If you look at Chelsea, when Hazard gets injured they’ve got Willian; if Willian gets injured they can still play Moses further forward. Arsenal’s problem is that today they are just Ozil and Sanchez. If one of them gets injured, it is a problem.”"

That is simply not true. If comparing to the Chelsea example, Willian is the next man up, assuming that Pedro is a starter. If we assume that Sanchez is a striker, then Olivier Giroud is his immediate replacement. If he is a winger, with Theo Walcott considered the starter on the right wing, then there are a host of other options like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alex Iwobi and Lucas Perez that all offer better cover than the Chelsea squad boasts.

If Ozil is to fall before the end of the year, then Wenger can turn to Ramsey or Santi Cazorla, playing them in a more advanced position with the German’s absence or look to Danny Welbeck and change the system a little.

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Ultimately, although Sanchez and Ozil are far more talented players than any other in the Arsenal squad, the same can be said of Eden Hazard, or Harry Kane, or Sergio Aguero or Philippe Coutinho. Injuries to the star players are always difficult to overcome but Wenger is in a better position than any other manager in the Premier League to do so.