Alexis Sánchez week by week is growing into the centre forward we’ve been waiting years for. Many have long called for him to get an extended run centrally whilst others have passed him up as “not a striker” entirely, but now we’re seeing the true colours of El Niño Maravilla – a transformation that could end up rivaling that of any player in Wenger’s tenure and the options it gives us should fill us all with great hope.
Alexis is now in his 3rd season in the red & white of Arsenal and in that time he’s struck 55 goals and given 31 assists in his 113 games – most of those whilst operating from the left wing. A deadly maverick of a workhorse that is constantly hell bent on playing football and winning football games, he has a hunger that I could argue has never been seen at this football club before. In this new central role I believe we will see the best of him and introduce him to a new pedestal of leading players in the world.
You can draw many parallels between Alexis and Luis Suárez. Suárez didn’t look like a natural premier league striker in his opening few years at Liverpool and it wasn’t until he partnered Sturridge in Brendan Rodger’s diamond formation that we saw what truly was to come from him. Since then he’s become the best number 9 in the world and I doubt many would argue against that.
