Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez; The Personification Of Calmness

Alexis Sanchez stepped up with a little less than a minute remaining a chipped his penalty to give Arsenal the win. The personification of calmness.

A win is a win, as they say. With Liverpool opening the weekend’s fixture with a loss, compounded by a draw for Manchester United and then Manchester City and Tottenham tying in the late game on Saturday, a victory for Arsenal was of paramount importance.

Arsene Wenger, in the build up to Burnley’s visit, stated that this now the ‘moment of truth’ for the season; that January through March are the crucial times in which title challenges are built and the pretenders falter. It has, in recent years, been the latter that has dominated the storyline for the Gunners.

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Against Burnley, though, they were able to squeeze out the victory. After Francis Coquelin’s lazy leg tripped Ashley Barnes in the penalty area with a matter on minutes remaining, it was assumed that this would be a case of what should have been for Arsenal primarily thanks to the stupidity of Granit Xhaka.

However, after a short corner was eventually crossed to the far post, a high-foot from Ben Mee caught Laurent Koscielny and gave Alexis Sanchez the perfect opportunity to win the game for his side. The Chilean responded in tremendous fashion, dinking his penalty down the middle, leaving Tom Heaton stranded, who had dived low to his right in anticipation.

Of the penalty, Wenger said: “Yeah it was cool – too cool!”, while Aaron Ramsey, who was nearing his best form again after seemingly finding his match sharpness which was lost due to a first half of the season that was scuppered by various injury issues, heralded the quality of the taker: “That just sums up the quality and the confidence that he has to do that in the last minute. Hopefully, he can keep scoring now until the end of the season.”

Confidence. Self-assuredness. Fearlessness. Sanchez displayed all these intangible qualities. It was, though, calmness that he truly personified. Amid a hectic finale in which his teammates were venting their anger, his manager was sent off after squaring up to the fourth official and a raucous crowd were baying for blood, with ice in his veins, Sanchez was the only man in the stadium thinking straight.

Next: Arsenal Vs Burnley: 5 Things We Learned

While it was merely a penalty – something that every professional would be expected to score and that Andre Gray successfully completed just moments earlier – the position that Arsenal now stand in, as they stare down their moment of truth, is a far rosier one.

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