Wenger finds answer to forward dilemma from within through Sanchez

At the end of last season, after Arsenal had failed to claim the most winnable Premier League title in at least 13 years, Arsene Wenger had a deep think about what the side had been missing. He considered all aspects, but one area he kept coming back to was the front line.

Olivier Giroud is a good striker capable of fine lay-offs and very useful for knock-downs, who also gets a moderately respectable goal return, but it is not exactly a secret that Wenger has been trying to make an upgrade. It has in fact been one of the dominant themes in each of the last four summers, as he has sought to buy players of the profile of Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema to Gonzalo Higuain. The problem was that the market was again likely to see a premium on such players, so he pre-emptively came up with another solution. He decided it was worth going back to an option that hadn’t exactly worked brilliantly in the past, but then had only been looked at briefly.

He decided to put Alexis Sanchez up front. It has, for the moment at least, put some real verve back into Arsenal.

After a stumbling start, the side have found their stride, and really started to pick up pace - literally. There was an exhilarating speed to their play - and their goals - in the successive wins against Chelsea and Basel, and it was impossible not to notice, and be taken up by the devastation of their movement. It of course helped that they were up against defenders as leaden-footed as Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill, but their sluggishness only served to visually accentuate what a vigorous blur of speed Arsenal were.

Before the Chelsea defenders could even react in some moves, Sanchez and his fellow forwards like Alex Iwobi and Theo Walcott were already away. A key factor in all of this is the fluency of movement that all of them combined allow. Their individual pace on the turn means there is no break in the circuit. The electric pulse goes right through, with every attacker capable of stretching the pitch, and interlinking in gloriously swift exchanges.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say they would not be capable of scoring some of those goals with Giroud up front. They just wouldn’t have been able to move in the same way, at the same speed.

They would have been that bit more ponderous. That is indicated by the fact that last season, with Giroud up front, Arsenal played 288.7 accurate passes per goal. With Alexis up front this time around, it’s down to 222.6.

There’s also the reality that the Chilean is simply a better striker. Even beyond his superior finishing and more devastating range of abilities, there are the raw numbers. Since the start of last season Alexis has averaged a goal or assist every 88.2 minutes in the Premier League when playing as the primary forward, compared to Giroud’s 116.2. He also creates a chance every 31.1 minutes, against the French striker’s 64, and has a superior conversion rate of 21.1% to 15.3%.

With those kind of stats and these kind of performances, it actually seems so obvious to put Sanchez as the number-one striker, especially when they mostly come from a period when Wenger said he was “not convincing” in the role. That has started to change.

There is also the advantage, however, that the squad has changed too. Arsenal aren’t as reliant on Sanchez’s qualities on the wing, because Iwobi is now ready to be a regular starter, and Walcott finally looks capable of providing a consistent cutting edge. That should free Alexis to play up front, and also free him from defensive responsibilities, so that he can gradually become even more comfortable - and more effective - in the position.

“Now game after game he is growing into this position and getting better and better,” Wenger said recently. It’s very difficult to argue that it does not make Arsenal a better team. Of course, some of this is helped by the fact the side currently find themselves in one of the Wenger grooves that is an inevitable but only temporary consequence of how he coaches, when everyone is playing off each other with glorious confidence.

It remains to be seen how they adapt when there is a disruption, or they hit a road block, but that seems like it might be the big question for this campaign. As it is, Wenger seems like he might have found one solution to a big problem. It was standing - or perhaps running - in front of him the whole time.

Is Alexis Sanchez the long term solution to Arsenal's centre forward problems? Let us know in the comments below