Arsene Wenger says that Alexis Sanchez has everything you need to be a top class striker, after his hat-trick yesterday helped blow West Ham away in the 5-1 win.
The Chilean struck three times in 10 second half minutes to claim the first second hat-trick of his Arsenal career, and afterwards the Arsenal manager was full of praise for his main man.
“He has all the ingredients to be a top class striker and he shows that now in every game,” he said.
“In a game like that today, again he is quick, he is quick to close down, he can dribble, he has short backlift.
“He has a killer instinct and it shows again that the South Americans, at the moment in world football, are the leading strikers.
“You have to acknowledge that. If you look through the top strikers in Europe, they are basically all South American now.”
Wenger has deployed Sanchez as a striker for the most part this season. It’s a move which has paid real dividends, and the Frenchman says that the former Barcelona man is enjoying his football there.
“Yes, he likes the positions,” he said. “You know how the players are, people like to play as strikers.
“If it doesn’t work, they prefer their first position. But when it comes off, of course, when they walk home with the ball under their arm, it’s a good feeling and I think and hope that it gives him the taste for more.
“He has the qualities to play there, he has good movement, he is sharp. Maybe size-wise you could say he is not the tallest, but he is quite good in the air when he goes for it.”
I love the thought of Alexis walking home from the Emirates to see his puppies with a ball under his arm.
lolz…. the reference to size though…….
Isn’t Messi short too?
dude, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. it’s actually what makes the best players tick. Was just talking the singsong way the arsene said it. that’s all
Great result etc but does anyone know what it has taken this long to give him a run in the CF position and to see it work so well? And should this form continue that’s another amazing winger-come-striker feather that Wenger can add along side Henry and RVP. And yes Mr MoTD Shearer – he is bloody world class! Special mention also to the Ox who looked very good yesterday and always wanted to make things happen. Now if only he can find consistency. Walcott’s early form seems to have tapered off slightly – hope he rediscovers it in the… Read more »
I remember he tried him there a few times in his first season. I suspect the fairly tenuous fan support these days means we need to get instant results with it, or not at all :/
Shearer expressed your first point on MOTD. Wenger tried Alexis up top at the beginning of the 14/15 season but the team lacked creativity on the wings so Alexis was moved back to the wide position for Welbeck (when fit) or Giroud. This whole thing seems to have worked due to the emergence of Iwobi. In fact, even when Iwobi doesn’t play, Oxlade-Chamberlain (against West Ham) or Lucas (against Ludogretz) are adopting his creative approach to forward play, no doubt under Wenger’s instructions.
TGSTEL will be annoyed when he reads AW’s comments.
If he can read of course.
Alexis scored a hattrick against Leicester last season.
Good point made regarding his aerial ability. Not the tallest but he makes up for it with sheer tenacity.
The Chilean struck three times in 10 second half minutes to claim the first hat-trick of his Arsenal career…he scored a hat-trick vs leicester last season
“You had one job!” (;
Who feels that we should give Alexis Sanchez the ‘he scores when wants’ chant? That would go buzzing round I think.
We all know what happened the last time we sung that for a striker so maybe not
Alexis scored his first hattrick against Leicester. Remember?
i member!
I dont think this was his first Arsenal hattrick. Didn’t he have another against Leicester last year?
Well done to everyone who spotted my deliberate mistake regarding Alexis and his hat-trick. Kudos 😉
Have a great Sunday all ya’ll.
Funny thing is that when he’s playing striker he doesn’t have to do as much defensive work compared to playing on the wing, yet there he was all game tracking back to win the ball. What a champion!
The best strikers are hardly “All” from South America. You do have strikers like Lewandowski, Griezmann, Aubameyang, Müller, Benzema and Ibrahimovic. Suarez, Aguero, Higuain and Sanchez are the only south American strikers I can think of whom are brilliant. Unless you count wingers like Messi and Neymar etc, but then you also need to count Ronaldo, Bale, Reus, Ribery etc.
People can make a point that is relevant without being mathematically exact. You forgot to do a statistical hypothesis test on the statement Wenger made.
I think what Wenger meant was that those strikers you mentioned are the world’s best and this the best strikers come from South America.
Furthermore, I think that the way Neymar and Messi play for both Barca and their respective national teams counts them as strikers as well.
You do have a good point. I was thinking the same actually. Think of the powerhouses of soccer in South America- Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile -and the only other strikers I can think of off the top of my head are Cavani and Falcao, neither of whom are world class at the moment. Brazil doesn’t even have a world class striker right now. If anything, the number of world class strikers from South America has dipped.
As much as Alan Shearer is a cunt, he did for once make a good point last night. Why did it take so long to realise that Sanchez could play through the middle? All of those transfer windows, yet the solution was right under our nose. When he initially signed I was under the impression he’d be our Suarez/Aguero type CF. But we decided to give Theo more opportunities to play upfront than Sanchez.
Yea why not just take another dig at our manager….. even after a 5-1 win…… willl it never end?
I made a comment about this above but I would like to further say that I genuinely dislike Shearer’s habit of delivering shallow and sensationalist rhetoric, especially when it comes to the Arsenal.
He got his run as centre forward last season , but that doesn’t go well as his run this season ( cmiiw )
So mr wenger decide to take him back to the wing , where he can turnover like 1000 times , but his goals from the wing not bad either.
and then giroud back with good scoring run .
but now thank god , we have striker to match with chelsea cunt face .
Now with eleven goals and still banging for more
I understand your point but I just think Sanchez should’ve been given more opportunities to play upfront in the previous 2 seasons. Even with Giroud in good form we could’ve tried them upfront together in a 442 formation.
False argument. Firstly, Alexis had to get familiar with the league and his position out wide . We also may not have had the maturity in midfield to support him up top yet. This season, Alexis appears better ready to cope with the central role. Wenger is again spot on transforming a player into an unfamiliar role and reaping rewards. Most of the people bleating on here admonished Wenger for thinking Alexis is striker material and can ve relied upon. Now they are trying to turn the argument over that he should have done it earlier? PLEASE….get to grips with… Read more »
Loved the picture taking with the ball boys. What a star.
Sanchez is a fantastic player, but it worries me that we rely on him so much. He’s played quite a bit this season, but it doesn’t seem like he’s going to get a rest.
I don’t know why AW is referring to Sanchez’s size. The best known striker in the world are short…Messi, Maradona and Pele. He should rather concentrate in convincing some of his players to have the same mentality like Sanchez. Even when he is not playing wel, he fights and show determination all the time. No one can ever question his commitment. If few of our boys could show such attitude, i will be confident about winning the major trophies.
A bot more height would be useful but not the end to all things. That’s all Wenger is saying. What Wenger would have liked is someone around the height of RVP or Henry. That said, neither of those two scored terribly many with their heads either. We tend to keep the ball on the deck. But it is useful to have the option to cross to something when fielded against tightly packed defenses. That’s why Giroud is so useful in those sort of games. Welbeck is likely potentially the best hybrid between the mobility of Alexis and the height of… Read more »
please give him and ozil 200k a week and be done with it
Not top class. NO where near. Actually….WORLD CLASS! We now have 2 different options to break teams down. With teams who like to present us open space to roam, Alexis is most effective with his mobility and pressing. With teams who sit deeper and deny us space, GIroud will knock the door down. Worth noting that Giroud has a better goals per games played record than either of RVP or Adebayor. Hopefully, we also have Welbeck on the mend who is a good blend of both. But the Chilean’s canniness is hard to replicate. Taht’s the edge the South American… Read more »
Weather Alexis is shorter than Messi idint mind,but what I mind is the ball under his arms