Arsenal put in a determined shift and rode a bit of luck along with an Alexis Sanchez brace as they moved to the 3rd spot in the League table.
The hosts had been on top when the ball came off Sanchez’s hand and ended up in the net on 34 minutes. He added a penalty in injury-time which was awarded after Sam Clucas was sent off for handball from Lucas Perez’s header. It might have been a bit fortuitous but 3 points are all that would have mattered for Arsene Wenger and his boys as they look to remain in contention in a hotly contested race for the Top spots.
Here are 3 talking points from the game.
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE?
Arsenal have been dogged this season. There has been a slight change as they have chased teams and fought till the last whistle in every match and it was evident in the early part of the season clearly. But a couple of setbacks saw them lose their momentum and lose the initiative in the title race. A race for the Top 4 spots in well and truly on and what has been interesting this season has been the amount of luck or we can well say that the rub of the green has gone their way on a number of occasions. And the occurrences this season have directly led to the Gunners benefiting in terms of results. If you look at the changed attitude this season, one might say it is just a case of fortune favouring the brave.
ALEXIS SANCHEZ IS INDISPENSABLE
The Chilean again scored a decisive brace and moved to 17 goals for the season. He has 9 assists to go along with it and once again was involved in everything meaningful Arsenal did going forward. His tireless displays get the crowd going on the dullest of days and it is something the rest of the players don’t often come up with, especially for Arsenal. This kind of energy and quality is surely indispensable for them right now. He replaced Giroud up top and once again showed his versatile nature.
OZIL IS NOT
By popular and logical belief, Ozil and Sanchez are considered as Arsenal’s two best players. The duo has had a number of memorable moments in an Arsenal shirt and despite being diametrically opposite players in nature were deemed to be equally valuable. But with passing time, there has been increased concerns regarding Ozil’s displays and while an outstanding performance usually puts those concerns to rest, ever since the rumours regarding the contract talks have emerged, there has been a section of fans who are of the opinion that they would rather see Ozil leave than the club bow down to his demands. While the details of the contract talks are just rumours till now, his latest displays surely won’t help his case in any manner whatsoever.
