Alexis Sanchez Inspires Arsenal Once Again Against Bournemouth

An Alexis Sanchez-inspired Arsenal saw off Bournemouth 3-1 on Sunday at Emirates Stadium to get back to winning ways after three consecutive draws throughout November.

In a match that was closer than the final score suggests, the Chilean always looked likely to be the difference. An ordinary player might have been tired after matches against Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain in the space of a week, but not Alexis.

After the match, Arsene Wenger told Arsenal.com of his goalscoring talisman: “Even when he looks dead, he’s still alive.” Thanks to his goals against Bournemouth, there is life in Arsenal’s title challenge yet.

After a gruelling Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain, Wenger made seven changes to his team. Despite the heavy rotation, Arsenal started the game relatively well.

The fact Bournemouth acquired two bookings in the opening 10 minutes of the game illustrates that, in the initial stages at least, the Gunners were hard to live with. It took a couple of excellent Bournemouth blocks to prevent Wenger’s men from taking the lead—one from Nathan Ake, to deny Mohamed Elneny, was particularly good. 

It will have been frustrating then that Bournemouth effectively handed Arsenal the lead. A misplaced pass from Steve Cook left Alexis one-on-one with Adam Federici. With the goal at his mercy, he fired under the former Reading stopper and into the net.

At that point, Arsenal ought to have been in complete control. However, they were seemingly thrown by an injury to Mathieu Debuchy. The Frenchman was a surprise selection, making his first start for he club in over a year. With just one behind-closed-doors match under his belt, it was arguably a risk playing him from the start. Four minutes after the opening goal, Debuchy departed clutching his hamstring. 

He had started brightly, and the blow was compounded by the fact Arsenal had not named a natural right-back on the bench. 

Wenger chose to bring on Gabriel to play at full-back, despite the Brazilian’s limited experience in the role. Perhaps he would have been better served by naming Rob Holding among his substitutes—although primarily a centre-half, Holding spent much …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com