William Bisset
I have just cast my vote in the ‘Gooner Referendum’, predicting a 2nd place finish for the club this season. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was still surprised by only 4% of Gooners agreeing with me. I want to be clear, at the start of the season a shambolic transfer market coupled with last year’s failings left me with a disillusioned pessimism I haven’t felt since the decision to sell RVP to United. I even turned down the chance to buy a season ticket after nine long years on the waiting list. What wound me up the most was our lack of a striker, the prospect of relying on Giroud for goals filled me with despair. However, the last three weeks have given me cause for encouragement in the form of our new winger turned superstar striker, Alexis. Having an on form talismanic striker can give everyone a lift, and I think his form is cause for optimism for Gooners everywhere.
It is a tired cliché, but to mount a credible title challenge you need a top class striker who will bag 20 plus goals. It is possible we have stumbled upon one of those dreaded ‘internal solutions’ in the form of Alexis. I love Giroud, I really do, but were he to have a statue erected outside the Emirates, it would surely be of him on his knees screaming, “pourqoui!?” in anguish at the sky after missing another sitter against Hull. For all his fantastic link up play and towering headers, he is unbearably profligate and I still contend that had we bought a world class striker we would have won the league last year. He went on a 14 game goalless run in the Premier League run in. This is simply not good enough for an elite team. Mesut Ozil must have been tearing his hair out as it slowly dawned on him he wasn’t going to break the assist record, despite a consistent chance creation rate throughout the season. All this is in stark contrast to the ruthless Sanchez.
Alexis is learning the role, and I had always thought that he wasn’t comfortable enough receiving the ball with his back to goal, but his recent performances have been encouraging. Wenger has said in the past that he believes he can be our Suarez, and his performance against Chelsea on the weekend lent credence to this idea. He terrorised Chelsea’s admittedly very average defensive pairing and his goal is a great example of using his speed and tenacity to carve out an opportunity for himself. It was Suarez-esque. He is a natural goalscorer, with 47 goals in 100 games, predominantly from the left wing. This season he has 5 in 7. These aren’t Oxlade-Chaimberlain goals when you’re 3-0 up against Forest in the League Cup either, these are important pressure goals. I’m talking Spurs away last year down to ten men, PSG away 1-0 down, and opening the scoring against Chelsea on the weekend. He is a world-class player with intelligence, explosive physical attributes and a cool finish. Besides, Arsene’s conversion of Thierry from left-winger to striker isn’t exactly a terrible precedent is it?
For all the clamouring for a world class striker over the summer from our exasperated fan base, me included, perhaps the internal solution has been here the entire time. Of course, it is important to not get ahead of ourselves as he is still adapting to the position, but I’d certainly pick him over Giroud for a big game. Even if Giroud had managed to rob Cahill near the halfway line, and somehow outpace him to a one on one situation with Courtois, the likely scenario is yet another head in hands dropping to the knees moment for Olivier. When Alexis was bearing down on the Chelsea goal, I almost felt relaxed, like I used to feel with Henry, I trusted him to score.
I am honestly not sure whether Wenger planned this when refusing to pay big money on a top striker, or whether it was forced upon him by Giroud’s lack of fitness. However, it looks like we may well have stumbled across a solution to our striking woes of recent years. Either way I am currently experiencing my annual re-realisation that maybe Arsène Wenger knows more about football than I do.
