Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette better than Alexis Sanchez, plain and simple

Arsenal weren’t able to overcome Southampton fully, perhaps because Alexandre Lacazette was again push to the side for want-away Alexis Sanchez.

Arsenal were supposed to be angry after the Manchester United loss. They were supposed to recover and look dominant yet again as they had against Huddersfield and Tottenham. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the same problem that riddled the United loss – defensive mistakes – riddled the Southampton draw.

In what was the worst start that could ever have been imagined, Per Mertesacker was this time the culprit, giving a goal to the Saints right as the match kicked off.

On the attacking side of things, as the recovery was underway, Alexis Sanchez continued to give the ball away at a feverish pace. Yet again he topped the lost possession charts after 34 individual cases of lost possession against United.

Alexis was terrible for 86 minutes, He could not wrap his head around retaining possession and time and again he passed poorly, spun himself into trouble or ran himself into a blind corridor.

Meanwhile, Alexandre Lacazette was superb. His soft feet make every touch look perfectly taken. When navigating tight spaces, he keeps it simple, keeps the ball close and, as such, rarely ever loses possession.

Not just that, but he is creating more and more. Not chances, necessarily, but problems for the defense. He is so smart in his hold-up play and so well-versed in his attacking library.

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And, like clockwork, every single match (barring United) he gets subbed off while the turnover kingpin stays on the pitch to turn the ball over some more.

I understand the logic completely. Alexis can create from nothing and we saw that against Southampton. His scooped ball worked, found Olivier Giroud‘s head and we get one point instead of zero. But if you are going to wade through hundred of minutes of crap for that one minute of inspiration, you are doing something tragically wrong.

Not just that, but the key to the whole shebang is clear – Lacazette is better than Alexis. He is more clinical than Alexis and, if we gave him the chance, I do believe he could be more clutch than Alexis too. Especially given the current layout of the situation, with Lacazette invested for the long-haul and Alexis with at least one eye already on the exit and both feet out the door.

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Throw the loyalty aspect out the door, when it comes down to the crunch, I would rather have Lacazette in there than Alexis, solely based on what they are capable of. One assist against Southampton isn’t going to change that.

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