Beaten in Beijing, Arsenal are lagging behind rivals in moree ways th than one
Arsenal faced off against Chelsea on Saturday in Beijing, but it ended in a 3- 0 debacle. While it may have been a preseason friendly in a foreign land, it was still a worrying result. Despite fielding a strong team with first- team regulars like Mesut Ozil, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey and new striker Alexander Lacazette, the Gunners looked sluggish and impotent against Chelsea. Arsenal have spent the last two weeks playing games in Australia and China, which may account for some weariness. But with the season kicking off in a matter of weeks, Arsenal need to pick themselves up if they want to avoid losing their first game, as they have done in the last two seasons.
The disparity of the defeat could also be seen to represent the differences between Arsenal and its competitors in its offseason moves. Because while City have loaded up on expensive defenders, breaking the spending record for Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy – and Chelsea have brought in Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko – Arsenal have been content with just Bosnian left back Sead Kolasinac and French ace Lacazette. Not that those two aren’t good additions, but Arsenal do need a playmaker, especially as a replacement for Santi Cazorla, who was hit by a severe achilles injury last season. At 32, Cazorla cannot be relied upon for the long term even if he is able to return for this upcoming season.
Besides being slow in getting new players, Arsenal have also been slug- gish in trimming their squad with only goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and Yaya Sanogo leaving. Arsene Wenger will have to make a few tough decisions because it seems likely at least one of the British veterans needs to go. Wenger usually likes to keep veteran players, even injury- riddled ones, but he needs to become a little more ruthless.
However, the biggest question is Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean star is still with Arsenal, despite giving hints last season of wanting to leave, and indeed there have been a few suitors such as City. Wenger is sticking to his guns and claiming Sanchez won’t leave this sum- mer but the problem is he risks Sanchez leaving next summer ono a free. Wenger is hoping that a great season might change Sanchez’s mind but nothing less than the Premiership or the Europa League might do. Given the strengthening from the other four teams who finished above Arsenal last season, this might be an impossible task. It is never a good sign to go into a new season with uncertainty over your best player and Wenger unfortunately has already experienced this in the recent past.