Arsene Wenger says Alexis Sanchez has found form again in part because of his move to the right hand side.
Usually deployed on the left, the Chilean has switched sides in recent weeks, with Alex Iwobi operating from the left. He’s now scored in three consecutive games, and has had a number of assists to his name as well.
Speaking after the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace yesterday, the Arsenal manager told the official site, “He is much sharper. He is much more electric in his dribbling and much more confident. He scores goals again.
“He looks to me to be more comfortable in his movement, especially in his movement in behind.
“When he plays on the left, he likes to drift in then come back. When he plays on the right, his runs in behind are better.”
Injuries and fatigue have also contributed to much less effective season than his first at the club when he spanked in 25 goals, including an FA Cup final screamer.
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Meanwhile, three fans were arrested at the Emirates Stadium on suspicion of assaulting a steward. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police said, “Three people were arrested yesterday, Sunday, 17 April, at the Emirates Stadium following an incident where a steward was assaulted.
“A 50-year-old was arrested on suspicion of common assault and section 4 of the Public Order Act after stewards attempted to remove him from the stadium for racial abuse.
“A 26-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were also arrested on suspicion of the same offences after an altercation took place during the attempt to remove the man from the stadium.
“All three remain in custody at a north London police station.”
Unpleasant stuff, and an Arsenal statement read, “We are working with the police regarding this incident. The stewards received medical attention after the incident and thankfully were not seriously injured.”
That news about the steward assault is very unsavoury. At least they didn’t get away with it.
Definitely unacceptable behavior. Be a fan, not a fanatic.
Two sides to a story. A lot of the stewards can be complete assholes. I was sitting in the very back row with no one behind me, so started to stand up to get a better view when goalmouth action occurred. Then this bafoon told me to sit down or I will be ejected from the stadium. No warnings just straight up I will eject you. The idea of going to a game is to enjoy yourself not just sit there and clap when a goal goes in. That’s part of the reason the atmosphere is so bad at the… Read more »
At this point I’d just like to see Jack and Tom play on Thursday. At least they might bring some life to the place..
Would love to see Santi as well. But it is too early for him, perhaps.
Racism has no place in football, or anywhere else for that matter. Shame on that man.
Who the fuck is thumbing down these posts?
John Terry obviously
I’m hoping a lot of someoneses have dropped their dialing wands. Those buttons can be tricky on mobiles.
Unfortunately I hoped for a lot of other things this season too, and, well, yeah.
I also feel like Alexis is better with Giroud. Oli has the flicks and the touches to find Alexis in prime positions, whereas Welbeck’s never seem to come off.. It’d be great if we could get a striker who is a mixture of Oli and Danny
The goal was welbeck’s assist my friend. Welbeck offers a more direct threat than Giroud. From a striker, one would expect direct threat and the ability to make chances for oneself.
Giroud and Alexis are completely incompatible, whilst Welbeck’s movement brings the best out of Alexis.
Tim Stillman’s column has shown that to be untrue.
If old man is happy with Alexis on the right then goodbye Theo it is, i think. After a few disappointment comments from Arsene on him it the last weeks (a rare thing indeed) can’t see Theo staying beyond this summer. We’ve got more promising wingers coming through the ranks and the need to reinforce the squad in other areas. Seems pretty clear cut. As for the second part of the article – such a shame. I hope the steward is ok and these despicable human beings will be banned from the Emirates for life. Oh, and a sincere “f*ck… Read more »
The problem is, who is going to pick up his large weekly pay packet?
Can’t see Man City (specifically Pep) being interested in a player who can’t dribble a ball and doesn’t seem as fast as he used to be.
How do you know how much money the racist thug earns? 🙂
When he messed us around with his demands for a higher salary I knew he was taking the piss. I would have stuck him on the bench and sold him for whatever we could get for him.
No player is bigger than AFC!
But the manager is…
I’d be happy to do it. I won’t throw a fuss about playing time or even to take up a bench spot, reducing the risk of actually putting me on the pitch.
City or Chelsea hopefully to fill their homegrown quota. I don’t see any other way.
Maybe we can trade Walcott for Everton’s Lukaku?
Yeah sure, people are going to be dying to buy Theo after his 140k contract and his form this year. We’ll probably have to do what City did with Adebayor having to let him go for little to no fee, or pay off part of his wage until the duration of his contract. Another genius move by the mentalist running us.
I love Alexis, but lately he is becoming that puppy that is starting to be annoying, rather than exciting and new.
Giving his ball away so many times with his misplaced short passes.
🙁
Yeah I liked Alexis, but lately he’s started providing end product again and this team has no place for that kind of thing. Wenger needs to have a word with him.
Theo’s been with us for 10 years now. I haven’t seen any improvement to be honest. £140K is a bit of a joke. He’s been taking us for a ride for long enough.
How about a straight swap for Sturridge?
Why would Liverpooh do that????
Swap for benteke anyone?
And you think Liverpool are stupid enough to do that?
A swap for lukaku would is my two cents.
Lol Good one mate. You might have well said you’d swap him Messi.
Rather than spending his time on some PR puff piece about Alexis you would hope the manager is focusing on the areas (read: almost all of them) where he should NOT be happy.
We are now almost certain to finish below Sp*rs for the first time in 20 years. That is just about the worst thing AFC can do. We don’t have time for stupid PR puff pieces.
I know this comment may sound a bit doom-and-gloom but really people. Sp*rs are going to finish above us. How can that not leave you gloomy?
I would quite happily take Arsenal losing every single remaining game, if that meant Spuds didn’t win the league.
I know people won’t agree with me but I live in North London and it will be hell.
I’d rather us be in the champions league and have a semblance of hope trying to sign abonnemayahyowhaongzema.
Whether we are in the Champions League or the Championship, so long as Wenger is in charge the chance of us signing Aubameyang or anyone in his price range would practically be the same.
He’s focusing alright… he’s so damn focused he gave the team a day off today
No probably about it. They are much better than us this season, they are winning 3:0 at Mordor. We will be lucky to get fourth.
Just watched the last 25 minutes of The Spurs match and they could have won by far more than 4-0.
For Wenger to have allowed this to happen after 20 years with a massive financial advantage over them is completely unacceptable and shows just how far we’ve fallen!
He has to go and cannot be allowed another season to damage our team further!
Make no mistake. Sp*rs are light years ahead of us. This can all change very quickly of course but as it stands the tide has turned.
The Spuds’ brand of football has a lot more in common with our pre-05/06 teams than ours does. Irony.
Seriously…the only difference between us and spuds Is Harry Kane. Guaranteed goals from your striker, which we know we lack. You take him out and nothing. To suggest they are light-years ahead is stupid. We all have to accept that with all the money in league now it’s more competitive and all teams have pretty damn good squads. You thought this year was mad, next season is gonna be straight up 6 teams could win it. Champs league place is gonna be between like 8 teams…for the neutral it a gonna be sweet. But I’m not a neutral, so it… Read more »
I’d like to believe that’s true, that the reason we are where we are in the league is down to not having a good enough striker, but I’m sorry but I don’t. Aguero is the best striker in the league and yet City are on the same amount of points as us. Jamie Vardy has been a revelation for Leicester, but do you genuinely believe he played for us this season that we’d be sitting atop at this stage? There’s a lot of factors involved in explaining the league table. What this season has proven without doubt is that the… Read more »
Seriously, if those dirty inbred donkeys from up the seven sisters manage to overhaul Leicester to win the league I will never forgive Wenger. Ever.
Agreed. What sort of car crash if season are we having, if our biggest hope is for spuds not to win the league?
I can’t take anymore.
On the arsenal website
we did the job but unfortunately we didn’t get the 3 points
Fucking clueless. That was one of the worst most insipid performances for a long time
we need to change something. 100% possession and not scoring is pointless. just play sanchez as striker for the remaining games, he’s no aguero but he’s the closest thing to a ruthless, hungry goalscorer we will see this season in our squad. especially, compared to giroud and theo both of whom are desperately out of form. welbz is good but hasn’t hit his goalscoring stride yet.
such a sad, disappointing season.
can’t even think of a silver lining.
I’m probably the only one, but I really wish Wenger would at least try again with Sanchez as a striker; as our own Aguero.
Or at least explain why he dropped the very reason he got him in the first place for.
you’re not the only one, mate.
Well I can understand his decision to not play Sanchez as a striker, because it would mean the team is lighter in other areas. Yes Sanchez could do a similar job for us that Aguero does, but Aguero’s game is limited still by the fact that he cannot always challenge for long balls, and he’s obviously not the strongest in terms of his physique. Man City compensate for this by other members of the team trying to impose themselves on the game for Aguero, allowing him free reign to punish opposing defenders. Therefore from my point of view, it seems… Read more »
what long balls do we ever play anymore, even as a variation? There was that season two seasons ago when we were grinding out 2-0 till we played liverpool, chelsea, and everton and gave up the title. Other than that, we do generally like to play on the ground, don’t we?
I wonder how people just say long balls, that’s the frikking antithesis of what Wenger’s idea of football is. I wish we would play a long ball or two, or put in a cross now and again.
Rest of what you say makes a lot of sense.
But we do play long balls with Giroud in the team. I disagree when people say that Giroud and Alexis aren’t compatible. I think they are, but they are both selfish players. Whilst Sanchez has made up for this at times with hard-work and tracking back, Giroud does so by ‘fighting’ for long balls and corners etc. The issue I have is that they seem to be doing the bare minimum to fight for the team – so that they can simply say that they have done their bit – instead of fighting for each other. I agree we are… Read more »
Also playing Sanchez up front would leave us seriously light in the wide midfield positions he currently occupies (or wide forward if you like). We really don’t have many players who can do what he does, as consistently as he does it, in those wide positions. This season has shown that. The Ox has not progressed this season. Walcott has flattered to deceive. Wilshere (who could do a job out there) is injured again – also not an orthodox wide player in any way. Ramsey could do a job, and contribute defensively too, as his overall understanding of the game… Read more »
You talk as if Campbell doesn’t exist, and provides the same energy and creative outlet like Sanchez could (not as good, but better than Ox, Theo and Ramsey).
Tbf, doesn’t seem like Campbell exists to Wenger either.
Like Wenger, I don’t really think he does. You’re right when you say he provides the same sort of hard work and motivated play that Alexis does. However I think he is very limited in his attacking play. Not that he’s a one trick pony, but that he can become a bit predictable. He doesn’t have Sanchez’s rapid movement over the first few yards, so when he does check back onto his left foot I feel like his movement is obvious. He works harder than the players you mentioned, yes (Theo, Rambo and the Ox) but I think their attacking… Read more »
I agree with playing Sanchez as a striker. He has more hunger and pace then Giroud and he is a better finisher the Welbeck. Plus we have other options on the right.
How about this line up:
Gk chec
Rb belarin
Cb mert & Kos
Lb monreal
Dm elneny & coq
Rw Campbell
Mf ozil
Lw iwobi
S Sanchez
i think Nacho and Hector are showing signs of fatigue; i can see their form dipping.
i would have Gibbs and Chambers in for those two for the next game.
Also, for the next game, you know Pul*s is going to come out with the most defensive setup he can, so we don’t need Elneny and Coq both in midfield. Either Elneny and Ramsey or Coq and Ramsey. I would actually stick with the former.
Oh my days I have just seen the stoke v spuds result and looking at the two teams run in the spuds are in with a real chance of winning the title!!! I can’t believe I am saying this but I hope Chelsea can at least hold them to a draw when they host the spuds!!!
Einstein said doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results is insanity . I love Wenger what he’s done for the club what he’s done for English football but times change football changes we need a change ! we play predictable football other teams must say give them the ball ! Give them 20 chances! we only need one , Wenger moans at the hostile eviroment at the Emirates it’s cause we’re all going insane cod we do the same things every year, if he leaves now we may have to take a step… Read more »
Arsenal/ScapeGoat Fc.Watch how our season is usually blamed on One player:
2014/2015-Ramsey
2015/2016-Walcott
Don’t see many blaming one player this year. Yes Walcott has been poor as has Ramsey and many others but the blame lies entirely with wenger as most people on here seem to agree with. It’s his team he picks them he motivates them or not as it seems he backs them he tells where to play.he tells them.that 4th place is a trophy and they generally oblige in their obligation. I don’t blame any single player not even Walcott.140k a week good luck to him. The fact that we pay him so much is down to wenger. Ramsey the… Read more »