Sanchez rates as one of Arsene Wenger's most exciting signings of the past 20 years and a fan-base reared on Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie is desperate for the Chile international, brought to the club from Barcelona
for £32 million, to etch his name into Arsenal history alongside his
predecessors. Sanchez was purchased as a lightning-quick and versatile
forward, who would either perform on the right of the attack as he did
for Barcelona, or through the centre as he more often does for his
national team, and in spells for both Barca and Udinese. Sanchez has
been purchased to add an element of magic and penetration to an Arsenal
attack lacking a true attacking talisman.
The reality:
Having made a bright yet brief debut against Benfica in the central striker's role, Sanchez moved to the right to accommodate Olivier Giroud
and promptly saw the Frenchman waste two of his perceptive passes early
on. Sanchez looked to move the ball quickly and venomously and supplied
the kind of cultured passes that Theo Walcott
cannot. However, with Monaco proving rather more tricky than Benfica,
his enthusiastic first-half contribution produced little in terms of
decisive end product, even if a couple of clever flicks drew gasps from
the crowd.
Arsenal immediately
looked a more dangerous proposition when he moved to a central role at
half-time, with Giroud coming off, as Sanchez sometimes took on the
false nine brief, dropping off the front into deep or wide positions,
and sometimes played on the last shoulder, looking to run in behind. He
also held his own in the air, winning two early aerial battles against
Monaco's centre-backs, and then wasted a fine opportunity as he thrashed
the ball wide from a pass from Santi Cazorla. But that was the best chance to come his way before Chuba Akpom took his place in attack with 16 minutes remaining.
0 comments:
Post a Comment