SANCHEZ, RED-HOT CHILE STRIKER
It’s quality from red hot Chile striker...
SI X months have passed since Alexis Sanchez arrived at Arsenal for £35million and one nagging question remains. What do you think they were smoking over there at the Nou Camp?
People are entitled to the occasional mistake — Wojciech Szczesny lost his place for taking a crafty puff on a cigarette, for example — but Barcelona’s is on another level.
With every passing week, with every goal and every assist in the colours of Arsenal, the decision to sell the Chilean l ast summer becomes more absurd.
Sanchez made the first and scored two himself here, drifting between brilliant and sublime in this rhythmic deconstruction of Stoke City.
Arsenal were interrupted, at times, by Stoke’s agricultural approach and their willingness to look for a fight at every opportunity. What they got in return was a football lesson.
Sanchez operated at a different pace to those around him. In this kind of form, he can play wherever he wants. He has now scored 12 and engineered another seven in the Barclays Premier League since he said his goodbyes to Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Arsenal, gathering momentum, used the cushion of a three-goal lead to bring Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil from the substitutes’ bench in the second half.
Sanchez was mesmerising, waiting patiently for Laurent Koscielny to sprint back into the penalty area when the Arsenal defender served him with the chance to set up the opener.
Sanchez paused, checking his movement until he could find Koscielny and then looked on with a good deal of satisfaction when he directed his header beyond Asmir Begovic. This is his season.
He scored a beauty in the 33rd minute, collecting Tomas Rosicky’s pass on the edge of the area and gliding past outstretched legs. The finish was top quality, deceiving Begovic and the rest of Stoke’s defence by giving it the eyes before opting to drill his effort inside the keeper’s near post.
This was a decent response by Arsenal, putting the midweek trauma of Szczesny’s censure behind them with a convincing performance.
David Ospina i s first choice between the sticks for the time being — and he kept his second successive clean sheet. The reality is he had only two saves to make.
As for Szczesny’s future, that still looks in doubt after he arrived here expecting to start — despite being reprimanded for smoking in the showers following the New Year’s Day defeat at Southampton — but was dropped.
When questioned about the keeper’s reaction to the news he had been axed, Wenger provided a confusing answer: ‘I don’t know, but how can you take a decision? Look, I don’t want to talk too much about that because the more I talk, the less I inform you. Was the smoking incident the reason? No, honestly no.’
Matters were straightforward on the pitch, Arsenal adding a third goal when Sanchez’s 49th-minute free-kick somehow made it through the wall and into the back of Begovic’s net.
There was another side to this game, a knock-on effect of Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat at the Britannia Stadium on December 6. Some scores were settled.
Mathieu Debuchy will be out for several weeks, nursing a dislocated shoulder after Marko Arnautovic shoved him into the advertising hoardings. ‘I didn’t see it,’ claimed Stoke manager Mark Hughes.
Amazingly, Wenger said the same. ‘One-nil to the football team,’ chimed Arsenal supporters as Debuchy was carried off — and it was hard to disagree. Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross and Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud squabbled repeatedly, childishly holding each other’s shirts throughout.
Peter Crouch also escaped when referee Jon Moss failed to spot the Stoke forward elbow Nacho Monreal in the side of the head when they collided mid-air.
Had Sanchez not put this game well beyond Stoke, it certainly had the potential to spill over. Instead, Arsenal cruised the second half.
The 3-0 lead gave Wenger the opportunity to bring on Walcott, sending him on to replace Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain with just over 20 minutes left.
He should have scored when Sanchez put him through, racing away from Philipp Wollscheid and Erik Pieters before skewing his effort wide of Begovic’s far post. Ozil dusted off the cobwebs as well, making his first appearance since rupturing knee ligaments in the defeat at Chelsea in October.
By the time the Germany cap was on for Giroud, the damage had been done because Sanchez had put this game way beyond the limited ambitions of Stoke.
The man who cost a packet when he moved from Barca continues to leave everybody short of breath. ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Debuchy (Bellerin 12), Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Rosicky; Oxlade-Chamberlain (Walcott 67), Sanchez 9, Cazorla; Giroud (Ozil 73). Subs not used: Szceszny, Ramsey, Flamini, Campbell. Booked: None. STOKE CITY (4-2-3-1): Begovic; Cameron, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters (Muniesa 46); N’Zonzi (Sidwell 46), Whelan; Walters, Bojan (Ireland 73), Arnautovic; Crouch. Subs not used: Butland, Wilson, Adam, Moses. Booked: Cameron, Wollscheid, Crouch. Referee: John Moss. Attendance: 59,956. Man of the match: Alexis Sanchez.