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Walcott and Sanchez Key to Continuing The Gunners’ Hot Start

Despite an embarrassing 4-3 loss to Liverpool on the opening day, Arsenal have had a pretty good start to the season.  After one point from their first two matches, the Gunners won their next six league games, putting them joint top, behind Manchester City on goal difference.

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Much of Arsenal’s hot start can be down to their attack.  They’ve scored three or more goals in five of the eight league games this season, and have scored the joint most goals in the league so far.  A big part of their strong attack has been the performances of Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott.

The two have both started the season scoring and creating goals.  Walcott has scored five goals and assisted two in the Premier League, while Sanchez has scored four and assisted three in the Premier League.  The question is, how are they performing so well in their new positions and can they keep it up?

Sanchez is fantastic, everyone knew that going into the season.  The Chilean has been moved to striker this season and has kept up the level of performance he’s showed on the wing in his first two seasons at Arsenal.

On the other hand, Walcott has had a tough season last year.  He went from a right winger, to a striker, to a left winger, to a bench player throughout the season and struggled to consistently produce.  This season, he’s moved back to the right wing and has been sensational.

With Sanchez up top, Arsene Wenger has created a fluid front four.  Alex Iwobi, Mesut Ozil, Sanchez, and Walcott can all move into any of the front four positions.  The positional switching causes all kinds of problems for opposition defences as any of them could pop up anywhere at anytime.

Being the two goalscorers of the quartet, Sanchez and Walcott are the two that take advantage of this movement the most.  The two have combined for 6.96 shots per 90 minutes and 5.22 shots inside the penalty area per 90 minutes so far this season, according to Squawka.com.  For perspective, the title winning duo of Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy combined for 5.85 shots per 90 minutes and 4.15 shots inside the box per 90 minutes last season.

While both of Walcott’s goals against Swansea City on Saturday were quite fortunate, the first one is a good example of the front four’s movement.  Ozil dropped deep to try to start the attack, but it started with Iwobi carrying the ball just inside Swansea’s half.  He then delivered a ball to Theo Walcott in the final third after the Englishman had started to drift inside.  He then played the ball to Sanchez who was in more of a number 10 position than a striker position.  The Chilean played a ball out to Hector Bellerin who crossed for Walcott inside the box.  From then on, the goal was very lucky, but it was a good example of how the two players pop up in different dangerous positions.

The third goal is another example, where Sanchez dropped deeper and had Walcott, Iwobi, and Ozil all in front of him.  The Chilean then had time to look up and picked out the German for a wonderful volley.  The movement between the four is extremely hard to track and lets the front four get in space to inflict damage.

Arsenal have had strong starts to the season before and tailed off, so we have to be wary of weather they’ll be able to sustain their performance levels.  The rate at which they convert their chances will likely come down soon, they have converted 46% of their shots on target, which would be the highest ever recorded if it held up through the whole season.  If Walcott and Sanchez are able to keep up their personal performance levels, they could keep this form up and maybe even challenge for the title in May.

thejerseyfitz
thejerseyfitz
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