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Alexis Sanchez Saves Wenger’s Blushes

Many expected yesterday to be a stroll for Arsenal as they visited lowly Sunderland who were looking to bounce back from their humiliating 8-0 loss to at Southampton the previous weekend. If anything Sunderland started the better but as has happened to them previously they were undone by individual mistakes.

Sanchez latched onto a poor Wes Brown back pass and had the freedom of The Stadium of Light as he approached former Arsenal Keeper Vito Mannone and impressively lifted it over the stranded Italian to make it 1-0 to visitors. Sunderland then went back into their shell and it turned into a training session much like attack against defence. Like previous Arsenal games they struggled to break down the opposition and had no real cutting edge.

Sunderland started the brighter again in the second half and had chances to level but were unable to beat Wojciech Szczesny in the Arsenal goal. In all truth the Polish Goalkeeper did not have much to do but when he was called upon he looked capable enough.

It was another poor defensive mistake that killed off the home side, a mix up between defender Santiago Vergini and Mannone gifted Sanchez a tap in which he duly dispatched as expected.

Sanchez in recent games has started to look like the player that was terrorising defences in the World Cup and in La Liga in a Barcelona shirt, he opened the scoring last week against Hull City, bagged two yesterday and was the standout performer against Anderlecht in Mid week. He operated more centrally yesterday and looked a lot more effective which will make things interesting regarding team selection.  With the return of Theo Walcott to the first team yesterday or be it as just a keen observer it won’t be long before he is pushing for a starting place. Sanchez could have given Arsene Wenger a selection headache for when Mesut Ozil returns to the fold sometime in the new year, his return is expected to be around March time.

 

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