By Dan Ferguson
If Wenger genuinely cares about the future of this Arsenal team, he would drop Sanchez today and invite Lacazette to be the star.
Confidence and momentum are so important over the Christmas period, and it’s all the fans can ask for from a club so frequently riddled with injury or insecurity (contracts, transfers etc).
Ozil looks like he still really cares but cannot play off Giroud.
It is too pedestrian. He would perform far better if we offered him some width. I know Walcott is frustrating, but even when he is not playing well he still opens the width of the pitch up by offering an outlet. We desperately needed a winger against West Ham and it is a solution.
I would like to see Iwobi on the left Walcott on the right and Ozil as a number 10 playing off Lacazette. Wilshere and Xhaka is our only real option, and a 4 man defence.
If Holding and Chambers aren’t good enough to get a game over Monreal in central defence, then we have real problems. Especially as Mertesacker (who was truly awful in his last game), won’t get another look in for a while.
I don’t care about potential signings or sales. Just play those who want to play.
Sanchez is a confidence leech who has lost his smile, his burst and his extra level of desire that sets him apart. In my view that makes him comprehensively useless in a team who needs the most basic of results and outcomes.
But Wenger won’t do any of the above. He still believes that his cult of personality can persuade people to stay, to play, to improve, to believe and to grow.
This hubris, as Myles has highlighted so many times, is the biggest thing killing this team’s consistency. He won’t pick a team to graft out 5 different games in a row. I don’t believe he sets out to lose or draw, I just believe he picks the team he feels can win on His terms. And His terms are more important than any accumulation of points.
His majesty is in the material, over the process. It is in the legacy of the Old Master’s Studio name, and not in the poor quality of the recent work.
Arsene Wenger trades on a name and nothing else. It is him who is pointless, not the team.