Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez’s Olivier Giroud Frustration Shows Change Is Needed

Alexis Sanchez was visibly frustrated with Olivier Giroud’s lack of pressing during Arsenal’s win over Manchester City, showing that change is needed.

Arsenal have played a worryingly inconsistently throughout the season. They started the year in brilliant fashion, playing with great pace and intensity, fluid in their attacks, dynamic in their movement and ruthless in the final third, culminating in the three-goal demolition of Chelsea in late September.

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And then, as the dreaded month of November drew closer, their form began to deteriorate. In December they suffered losses to Everton and Manchester City, January saw good results but masking performances, and since the turn of the year, the Gunners have failed to replicate their dazzling early season form.

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When at their best, it has been with Alexis Sanchez as the central striker. The Chilean’s pace and mobility, combined with his unrelenting eagerness to press allowed opportunities to be engineered in advanced positions thanks to the mistakes of the opposition. On Sunday, although Arsene Wenger employed his new-found three-at-the-back system that prioritises defensive discipline and organisation over a high-pressing approach, Arsenal looked at their most comfortable and their most effective when they played a higher line and suffocated Manchester City.

The man who was leading that charge was, predictably, Sanchez, but this time from the left-hand wing. For the most part, it was a rather lonely furrow to plough, as his teammates seemed hesitant to join him in the higher risk strategy. As such, as he has done all season, Sanchez grew visibly frustrated, gesticulating with a number of his teammates, asking them to join him in pressing high up the pitch.

In his cries for support, he especially focused on Olivier Giroud, the starting centre-forward for the day. The Frenchman lacks the athletic ability to press opposing centre-halves throughout the 90 minutes. He does have the pace nor the stamina to be able to undertake such a physically demanding role.

That is not his fault. He is simply a striker to which his strengths must be played to – his aerial ability, his skill in holding the ball up and bringing others into play, his physical strength. But when those strengths do not best align with the approach of the team, suddenly Giroud becomes a shackle, a player to win in spite of, not because.

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Sanchez’s frustrations on Sunday are yet more evidence that this is true. When Danny Welbeck replaced Giroud late in the game, his greater mobility and quickness in running the channels on the counter attack created far more opportunities and caused far more problems for City. Giroud is not a bad a player. He is simply a one-dimensional player. But when that one dimension does not fit, change is needed. And for Arsenal, that time has come.