Why Arsenal Must Sell Alexis Sanchez in January

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[ Photo Credit: joshjdss ]

So the big transfer news this January Transfer Window is about Alexis Sanchez, and whether he leaves for Manchester City now or in the summer.

Reports are saying that his move to Manchester City is a done deal and it’s up to Alexis Sanchez whether he leaves now or in the summer – if he leaves now Arsenal are likely to get around £20 million but if he goes in the summer that fee is mostly going to go straight to him as a signing on fee, as Manchester City won’t have to give Arsenal a bean once the summer comes.

Talk of Sanchez moving to Bayern Munich or PSG has cooled, even though in some ways a move to Paris would seem to make more sense. He would be playing alongside Neymar and Mbappe which is surely tempting and because he wouldn’t cost anything in the summer surely PSG would see that as an attractive option since they’ve spent mega money on Neymar already. But I digress.

If I was Arsene Wenger, I would sell him now.

Of course he is a special player – probably the best we have at the club by a long way – but he’s not firing on all cylinders and clearly doesn’t want to be here. Yes he guarantees goals and assists but you get the feeling that his presence is not ideal for the club.

It’s easy to look short term and see what he gives the team (and don’t get me wrong, I love Alexis). He gives 110% every single time he puts on the Arsenal jersey and for me he’s the only world class player at the club. But Arsenal have royally cocked up the contract situation so should cash in while they can.

But there’s another reason why they should sell.

I believe that the team would benefit from his sale on a few different levels. Firstly a team is always bigger than one player and his departure would allow other players to shine. How many times has we seen Alex Lacazette subsituted towards the end of every game just because Arsene is too scared to take of Mesut Özil or Alexis Sanchez. It’s becoming a farce now and a player who has signed a long term contract with the club, who is also extremely talented, should be Arsenal’s main man. With Sanchez at the club that’s just not possible.

And the team will adapt. We’ve had a long line of quality forwards leave the club and we’ve always managed. With Sanchez gone maybe Arsene can find a way to play Olivier Giroud and Alex Lacazette in the same team? A formation tweak could see two motivated and loyal strikers kick on for the rest of the season.

Then there are the rumours that Alexis is a negative influence on the dressing room. Personally, I think that’s a load of b*llocks and every squad in the world has players with different personalities (just ask PSG) and I’m sure there are arguments from time to time but that’s football.

At the moment, Arsenal are stale, boring and predictable – but with Alexis Sanchez’s departure, at least there is some score for change which might be for the better.

How’s this for an Arsenal team?

With Sanchez gone, we could line up like this:

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Our Dominance in the North London Derby

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Many fans and pundits alike thought Tottenham Hotspur were favourites going into the North London derby at the Emirates last month.

Heading into the match Spurs were joint second in the Premier League and four points above us languishing down in sixth position.

They had unconvincingly beaten Crystal Palace 1-0 and Real Madrid 3-1 at Wembley Stadium before the international break.

However, only one team turned up on the day and that was the mighty Arsenal as we ran out 2-0 winners on 18 November 2017 – with goals from Shkodran Mustafi and Alexis Sanchez before half-time.  Heading into the match there had been no clear favourite in the football betting odds with both team odds against to pick up the three points.

In truth, the scoreline could have been greater but the result and performance was the most important thing.  It was a game where Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez showed their World Class abilities left all Arsenal fans praying they will extend their contracts beyond this season.

This was followed up by victories over Burnley (1-0) and Huddersfield Town (5-0) before being beaten at home by Manchester United last weekend.  Even then we still produced 15 shots on target and were denied any points from the game through a mixture of David de Gea’s superhuman effort, and two defensive errors in the opening 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, our victory over Spurs was the start of a winless streak for them.  They have since been held 1-1 at home by West Brom, beaten 2-1 at Leicester City and held 1-1 at Watford.  Subsequently we are now three points better off than our neighbours in the Premier League table, though still one point outside of the top four ourselves.

Last month’s North London derby victory was our 65th in the league against Tottenham and it’s not the only head-to-head record that’s better than theirs.

In terms of the trophy count we’re also way out in front.  Our 13 top flight titles embarrasses their two – which, by the way, is less than the likes of Huddersfield Town, Wolves and Blackburn Rovers.

Our record 13 FA Cups is five more than Spurs have, though they do beat us four to two in the EFL Cup count but that’s nothing compared to the two major domestic competitions.

We’re fighting on all fronts this season, looking to get back into the Champions League, either via a top four finish or potentially through winning the Europa League.  We’re at mid-table Championship outfit Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round in January too.  Later this month we have our EFL Cup quarter-final tie at home to West Ham – though that will be another chances for Arsene Wenger to give the youngsters and fringe players a run out during a busy Christmas period.

The graphic below from Betfair highlights the biggest derbies in English football and has a look at our head-to-head record against both Tottenham and Chelsea, as well as the all-time Premier League London derby records.

football derbies

 

Gunners gearing up for life after Arsene Wenger

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Arsenal’s chances of winning a first Premier League title since 2003-04 were already decidedly remote as it was, but the 3-1 defeat to Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium extinguished the last remaining hopes.

There’s still plenty left to play for in the current campaign, with Champions’ League qualification via either a top four Premier League finish or by winning the Europa League now being the priority.

For the hopelessly optimistic among the Gunners’ faithful, you can now back Arsenal at odds as big as 125/1 (with Bet Victor) to win the Premier League.  More realistically, a ‘Top 4’ finish can be backed at 6/4 with Paddy Power, whilst Europa League success is a 6/1 shot with William Hill (which looks less than generous with the likes of Atletico Madrid, Napoli and Borussia Dortmund all potentially destined for the competition via the Champions’ League).

Anyone predicting a fourth FA Cup success in five seasons will be tempted by the 10/1 offered by Bet Victor and you can get a tempting 7/1 with Unibet for Carabao Cup glory.  All those betting odds will be subject to change over the coming days and weeks, so be sure to check out the Freebets.co.uk Arsenal team page for all the very latest bookies prices and football news from a Gunners perspective.

Events off the pitch could be equally fascinating at the club over the coming months, with changes clearly afoot at the Emirates Stadium.

It seems increasingly unlikely that either Alexis Sánchez or Mesut Özil will still be Arsenal players by the time the 2017-18 season gets underway.  Speculation that either player could be sold in the New Year seems wide of the mark, with Arsène Wenger being unlikely to sanction any sales with so much left to play for this term and with the January transfer window being notoriously difficult to sign top quality players should he require replacements.

From the player’s viewpoint, both Sánchez and Özil could almost certainly get better personal terms by moving at the end of the season on free transfers (and they can of course agree a pre-contract from January), so there’s little benefit in either seeking a move prior to then.

The summer transfer window could be hugely significant for Arsenal’s future, with the comings and goings being a good indication as to how the club will operate post-Wenger.

With Aaron Ramsey, Petr Cech, Danny Welbeck, Nacho Monreal and Theo Walcott all out of contract in 2019, the club will want to avoid a repeat of the contract situations with Sánchez and Özil, so there could potentially be some significant changes to the Gunners squad on the horizon should the players they want to keep not put pen to paper on new deals.

The imminent arrivals of Sven Mislintat as head of recruitment and Raul Sanllehi (Barcelona’s former Director of Football) as head of football relations, added to the earlier appointments of Jens Lehmann (first-team coach), Darren Burgess (Director of high performance) and Huss Fahmy (contract negotiator) are further signs of the club’s gradual transition process towards the eventual departure of Arsene Wenger.

Wenger’s announcement that he is set for an end of season review was seen by some as an indication that he might be leaving halfway through his current (and surely final) two-year contract, but this is just his customary annual review and is unlikely to signal anything more contentious taking place.

There’s no clear favourite in the managerial betting odds as to Wenger’s successor as yet, with Thomas Tuchel, Diego Simeone, Patrick Vieira, Massimiliano Allegri and Carlo Ancelotti being among the market leaders at present.

Could Manchester United Be Any More Lucky or Negative??

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What a game, unfortunately though we got a result we didn’t deserve.

3 shots on target and 3 goals, typical of a extremely negative Jose Mourinho side.

At the end of the game, I was proud of Arsenal. Yes, 2 stupid mistakes lead to the first 2 Manchester United goals but mistakes happen and it’s not as if Koscielny and Mustafi misplaced those passed on purpose. After going 2-0 down after 11 minutes, all Arsenal could do is respond and did they.

After the United sucker punches our response was (almost) perfect and we dominated the game, with chance after chance. The only problem was David De Gea was on world class form – some of the saves were sensational and he kept Manchester United in the game – because against any other keeper we would have scored 4 or 5 in the first half alone.

Manchester United have a reputation for being very negative under Mourinho but today he took that to a whole new level. It was as if he thought he was up against Barcelona in their pomp. A squad that cost around £500 million to assemble was reduced to a defensively desperate mess by Arsenal, and for that I am proud of my team.

And any Arsenal supporter who is critical of Arsene Wenger is an absolute joke – could be legislate for the 2 mistakes? No. Was it his fault that a side that cost half a billion to assemble played like a non-league side at The Emirates? No.

Arsenal gave it everything and our recent form has been outstanding.

Arsenal fans need to put things in perspective.

Arsenal Dominated Chelsea From Start To Finish

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Before the game I was optimistic as you can be when Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge:


But on this occasion, I am more than happy to eat my words.

In the last decade, we’ve only won once at Stamford Bridge, when Arsenal won 5-3 and Robin van Persie scored a hat trick and John Terry decided that he forgot to move his legs and just gave up. While that was a great game and performance from Arsenal, the background to that match was that Andre Villas Boas was losing control of the Chelsea changing room.

And recently, we’ve been abysmal at Stamford Bridge, hence the above bet and tweet. It seems like every time we visit Stamford Bridge or Anfield, we play far too open and end up losing 3-0, 4-0 or 5-0.

But today, Arsenal played like a team.

Which this season hasn’t happened yet.

For the first time in a while, the formation, team selection and tactics were all spot on. Arsenal had Koscielny, Mustafi and Monreal in the back three, and had Hector Bellerin on the right (where he should be – not on the left!). And finally, finally, we had Sead Kolasinac where he was supposed to be, at left back!

Crazy I know Arsene but playing your full backs in the right positions might work!

Then we had Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey in central midfield, both of whom had excellent games.

But whether Arsene Wenger had intended or not, the front three today were spot on.

With Alexandre Lacazette the spearhead of the Arsenal attack, he was flanked by Danny Welbeck and Alexander Iwobi – and it was a masterstroke.

That front three set the tone for Arsenal’s performance and all three of those players were full of running and ran their hearts out for the cause. They hustled, harried and put the Chelsea defence under constant pressure.

The amount of closing down they did was truly phenomenal and something we haven’t seen this season, mainly because of the way Mesut Özil plays.

Welbeck, Lacazette and Iwobi worked together and if it wasn’t for their example we wouldn’t have been good as we were because they set the tone, lifted the team with their passion and that’s why we should have beaten Chelsea in their own back yard – comfortably.

In terms of chances, Welbeck had a good chance with a header early on, Lacazette forced a good save from Courtois after Ramsey and Bellerin combined well – and overall we caused the home side all kinds of problems.

The performance from back to front was exceptional today and you will not find an Arsenal fan who was not proud of the lads today. They worked their socks off, gave it their all, were well organised and played like a proper team.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the goal we rich deserved and that’s a bit disappointing, but no-one can fault the performance and in a game where we usually get turned over, instead Arsenal have given the fans hope and optimism moving forwards.

#COYG