Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez worst case scenario getting better

Arsenal has has many instances of being carried by Alexis Sanchez and that can be stressful for the Chilean, but that irreplaceable leverage is lessening.

Nobody wants Arsenal to lose Alexis Sanchez. He is such a vital piece of pushing forward and keeping hold of whatever momentum we can find. While I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that he is for sure leaving at the soonest possible opportunity, I can certainly see the concerns over his future.

That being said, probably then biggest concern was how the team could possibly survive without their little Chilean batter pack. He seemed to be everything we had.

That is changing. Rather quickly. Ever since switching to the 3-4-3, Alexis has not been that irreplaceable game-changer, who has to have everything go through him. He has has positive performances where he has been a part of a cohesive team unit. But he has never been the only option like he has been in the past.

Against Manchester United, it really came to the forefront. Alexis was overshadowed by his team mates. Very obviously overshadowed. Mesut Ozil was better, Aaron Ramsey was far superior, Granit Xhaka was huge. Even Kieran Gibbs showed up.

I would rank all of them as more influential than Alexis on the day. And say all you want that this was a poor United side, that’s not the point. The point is that other players are starting to step up. Even in the heartbreaker against the Spuds, Ramsey was a bigger factor than Alexis.

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As it stands, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is our best player, and I have no problem making that claim. He has been simply fantastic since taking the wingback role.

The point of all of this is that, the worst case scenario is losing it’s horrifying nature. Losing Alexis Sanchez doesn’t feel as much like an impossible mountain. It feels like a hill. Call me a crazy optimist if you want, but these past few weeks, with the team grinding out results, I have seen Alexis lose effectiveness. Even if the work rate remains and the unquenchable desire and the creative genius.

He isn’t a one-man wrecking ball anymore. And that is part of the reason why this worst case scenario doesn’t seem so bad. If worse came to worse and Arsenal crashed and burned into mid table, which isn’t even possible now, then we’d need to hit the reset on everything anyway, Alexis and Ozil included.

Now that there might be some fight from the Gunners in this new formation, we are seeing resurgent talents, as well as potential (potentially) being turned into a finished product.

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Give us a cold-blooded striker and this club can compete. That is the big, huge, glaring need. The one key piece that might spur a fighting Arsenal into consistency. With or without Alexis. Just… preferably with.