Category Archives: Alexis

Time to inflict a dirty Sanchez on a Pulis-less Palace…

I’m sorry, Crystal Palace. I genuinely am. I love that you not only earned promotion to the Prem last season, I love even more that you fought your way to 11th place. Normally, Gooners are supposed to heap scorn on Tony Pulis, what with his Neanderthalian tactics and all. However, I can’t help but hang my head just a little now that he’s gone. He seized your squad by the scruff and dragged it onward and upward, and I don’t know if his replacement will be able to inject the same intensity or aggro that he brought. What’s worse, we’re set to unleash a weapon against whom you may not have had much of a defense even with Pulis calling the shots. This new weapon, he’s cheeky. He’s pacey. He’s used to working in tight, clenched-up spaces. Of whom do I speak? Alexis, of course. I have a feeling that he’s going to deliver a bit of dirty business.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, and a part of me thinks it too: your lads will be galvanized by Pulis’s abrupt departure. The adrenaline-rush will fuel an inferno of emotions as you take to the pitch, angered and defiant, full of Pulis’s piss and vinegar (not literally, I assume) as you look to take the starch out of our shirts.

Look, mate, I would love to see the Eagles stay up. Heck, I’d love to see the lot of ye finish above Stoke and Newcastle and a fair-few others along the way. However, I worry that Saturday just won’t be your day. We learned our lesson ’round about a year ago: start strong. As such, I just don’t see your squad screwing its courage to the sticking-place, not against the arsenal we’re set to unleash.

Ordinarily, one might expect a squad in as much disarray as Crystal Palace, manager-less as I write, to defend deep and in numbers, hoping to spring a counter-attack. Against Arsenal, this might just work more often than I’d care to admit. However, this time through, we’ve got a player who can do more than run in behind defenders; Alexis, if you haven’t yet done your oppo, is more than happy to slice and dice with the ball at his feet against two or even three defenders. He dances. He dekes. In the tightest of spaces, Alexis has delivered. Playing for Barcelona, he’s encountered more than his fair share of “catenaccio“, squads that sit back and squat eight or nine players in and around the box, daring attackers to do their worst—and he’s done it.

I know full-well that defending in the La Liga is worlds away from defending in the Prem, all the more so when a side managed by Pulis is involved. Suffice it to say, we Gooners should prepare ourselves for a bit of pugnacity, a few punches and pulls. Fair play. If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em, as the saying goes (?). All the same, Alexis looks primed to punish. He flirted with a few moments of brilliance against Man City, and I’m sure he’s eager to make good on the promise we see in him at this end.

While I’m sure that you Eagles will hunker down and hope to nick a point on Saturday, I gotta think that Alexis, fed by Cazorla and Ramsey (and others), will find a way through the thicket to bag a brace. Sit back and defend as deep as you like; I don’t see you denying Alexis in his Prem debut. Whether he’s running in behind your defense on his own, going in one-on-one against the keeper, or twinkle-toeing through that defense despite its doggedness, he’ll find a way through. Slicing in from our right flank, he’ll befuddle and bewitch. For your sakes, I just hope he doesn’t bewilder…

Alexis’ Song rings out at The Emirates, but which one?

1 Reply

He’s only played about ninety minutes across two friendlies. He hasn’t scored a single goal. However, already, he has two songs, one a traditional, fan-created one that plays on his last name; the other, a revamped pop-song whose lyrics spin off of his first name. Which should it be? I’ve already taken to referring to Alexis as, well, Alexis. It’s the name he’s chosen for the back of his jersey, after all. However, I like my cheek, and I like my bants. It’s hard to ignore the traditional route. The “last-name” chant carries with it a nice bit of history specific to the signing of Sanchez that’s worth considering.

As far as I can tell, the following chant first appeared at Anfield to celebrate their signing of Fernando Torres. I’ll spare you their version, but ours goes like this for Alexis:

“He came to us from sunny Spain, Sánchez, Sánchez / He hates the scum from down the Lane, Sánchez, Sánchez / He chose to come to London town and turn the f*cking Scousers down! / Alex Sanchez number seventeen”.

Now, I don’t know if he hates anyone. That might be a bit strong. However, he did choose to come to London and spurned the Scousers in the process. Repurposing the Torres-chant strikes me as a classy way to tweak the Liverputians while highlighting the days when Torres actually scored goals—as Alexis shall soon start doing for us. This works for me (I seem to remember the Spuds trying to do this with Soldado, but that fizzled out rather quickly). The part that does give me pause is the idea that the arrival of anyone from Spain should find his name worked into this tune (I know Alexis is Chilean, so nit-pickers need not apply). Further, we did already use the tune for Santi.

At the other end, we have Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue“, whose chorus we convert to the following:

We gonna rock down to Alexis Avenue, he make the score go higher!

Simple. Straight-forward. Original. Chantey. It can get a bit reductive and repetitive, to be honest, but it has a chance at gettting raucous as well. I have to admit a sentimental attachment to the song, because it hit the U.S. in 1983 and transformed my understanding of music. Prior to that, I’m almost embarrassed to admit, I was listening to the likes of Duran Duran. The idea that music could actually say something or carry a message was new to me, and I liked that. Moving on. This isn’t about me, after all; it’s about Alexis Sánchez and his song.

What’s it gonna be? “He came to us from sunny Spain” or “Alexis Avenue? Both will probably get their chance. Whatever the outcome, let’s hope that we get plenty of opportunities to hear it ring out loud at the Emirates…

Um, Arsène, no offense, but WTF?

5 Replies

Week after week has turned into day after day. In a transfer-window that is still weeks away from closing, it seems more and more like Arsène is signing players with an eye to something more than simply strengthening the squad. Gone, it seems, are the days when we had to wait until deadline-day to learn of a signing. 10 July: Alexis Sánchez signs. 17 July: Mathieu Debuchy signs. Then, a lull…until 26 July: David Ospina signs, and two days later, 28 July, Calum Chambers signs. Time seems to be folding in on itself at a rate that will see us signing someone else 29 July, then someone else twelve hours later, and another six hours after that, and another, and another…in short, we seem to be disappearing into a wormhole with no end in sight. By the time it’s all said and done, we’ll have signed every player in the known universe, after which quantum physics takes over. It boggles the mind.

It started off, as all such processes do, with a big bang as we signed Sánchez. Not content to have poached from Real Madrid last summer, Arsène apparently felt that he had to burgle Barça, signing the scorer of 19 goals and 10 assists (good for 2nd and 3rd in the squad, respectively) for a mere £35m. That one was for the haters, those who brayed that Arsène won’t spend and that the big names won’t play for Arsenal. In two successive summer-windows, Arsène extended his arm and unfolded a certain, central digit and made sure that those donkeys understood whence (vence?) Wenger comes: “I’ve now signed players from Real Madrid and Barcelona, beyotches (pardon his French). What? Wot? You want me to sign from Bayern? We shall see.”

However, Arsène couldn’t resist certain impulses. Once his French-quotient dipped a bit following the sayonara de Sagna, we were greeted by the Debuchy debut (fair warning: you’re going to see a fair-few featurings of frequent falliterations from this fpoint fporward. I’ve had a fpint or ftwo…). Not content to b*tch-slap a few back-benchers, Arsène scratched an old itch by bringing in a Frenchie to play right-back, a debutante by the name of Debuchy. This one was an old-school signing, harkening back to the good old days of bringing in a few Frenchmen to fortify. Debuchy slots in for Sagna, who sidled off to Citeh. So it goes.

Speaking of scratching certain itches, Arsène couldn’t resist the signing of a certain stick-minder, this one of the a South American sort, to step up against Szczesny, perhaps even supplanting the Pole. Again, this signing carried calling-cards of the Wengerian-variety: A pittance paid. Found from France. Nicked from the Niçoise. Nevermind.

Closer to home, Arsène just had to tweak the Mancs, especially those who saw fit to splurge several shillings on Shaw, choosing Chambers for about half what those hankerers handed over for their Hail Mary. All alliteration aside, Arsenal may have acquired the better of Southampton’s defenders. Time will tell.

What’s next? Will we see the signing of Sami, the claiming of Khedira? Or will it be the bringing-back to Britain of Balotelli? We live in interesting times when it’s Arsenal that’s most active in the transfer-window. Willl wonders never cease? The only element missing to this point is the signing of a clinical closer, a striker who scores seemingly at will, at a fee that flummoxes the flibbertigibbets. I’m sure that Arsène will find him…

Newcastle prepares to unload Debuchy; has Khedira kissed Arsenal adieu?

4 Replies

While I haven’t examined Arsenal’s pursuit of Mathieu Debuchy all that closely, focusing instead on Alexis Sánchez, so many pieces seem to be falling into place that it’s getting harder to ignore: He’s French. He plays right-back. He’s available for less than £12m. We like signing French players. We need a right-back. Arsène loves a bargain. Debuchy’s an experienced player, familiar with the Prem, but Newcastle are prepared to see him go if their signing of 24-year old Daryl Jaanmat from Feyenoord is any indication. The Debuchy transfer has gone to the back-burner a bit thanks to our signing of Sánchez, and the same may transpire again as our pursuit of Khedira drags on. However, whereas Debuchy to Arsenal looks more and more likely, Khedira looks less and less so. So far.

The news out of Newcastle has Jaanmat signing today, which looks to be Toon’s way of saying that they can’t hold on to Debuchy, who was arguably among their three best players this past season, good enough to earn the starting spot for France at the World Cup. Whether this makes him a match or an upgrade on Sagna is an interesting question, answered at one level by the fact that he started all but one of France’s matches while Sagna played in the fairly meaningless last group stage match against Ecuador, by which point France had already advanced to the round of 16. The 28-year old Frenchman has been linked with us repeatedly and persistently from all corners, but there’s been little apparent action, at least recently. Direct comparisons are difficult when Arsenal’s possession (56.8%) was so much higher than Newcastle’s (49.3%), giving Debuchy more chances to rack up stats. Keeping in that factor in mind, Debuchy did surpass Sagna in most statistics while earning one of whoscored.com’s highest ratings for a defender (7.42). Sagna came in just a few ticks behind at 7.2.

A few of the particulars appear to the right. Debuchy claims the edge in most departments (with the asterisk mentioned above), but if we were to normalize their stats, we might see Sagna edge ahead. However, I’m less interested in numbers than in the larger picture. Would Debuchy be better at getting back than Sagna has been? All too often over the past season, Sagna has been caught either too far forward or too fatigued to get back, and it’s cost us. If Debuchy, three years younger and without a twice-broken leg, can offer an upgrade in that area, so much the better. His background as a deep-lying playmaker suggests that he is eager and aggressive going forward, but we’d also need him to commit more thoroughly to defending.

Speaking of eagerness to get up the pitch while minding one’s defensive responsibilities, the Khedira saga slogs on with either Khedira, his agent, or both asking for too much money, something to make him the highest earner in the squad. By my figurings, this would mean something in the £150k/week range. I don’t think it’s been put in those terms (“make me Arsenal’s highest earner”), more that a target has been mentioned that would end up making Khedira our highest-paid player. This seems a lot for a man who tore his ACL. If this is a starting point for negotiations, then great. Khedira is arguably among the best at what he does and who is also available, and others like Schneiderlin or Bender can’t match his experience, having played under Mourinho, Ancelotti, and Löw while playing with and against the world’s best with Real Madrid and Germany. He may not fit the mold of a true defensive midfielder, but he would bring more physicality and size to a side that sorely lacks both (and might lose what little it does if Giroud plays less frequently). Like Debuchy, his desire and ability to get forward might undermine his defensive commitments, but not to such a degree that we’d find ourselves exposed. What’s worse, a slow (and slowing) Arteta who struggles to get further up the pitch than midfield and can’t recover, or an aggressive Khedira who can join the attack and also recover?

If his (or his agent’s) wage-demands can be brought down a little, we could find ourselves with two world-class signings, plus Debuchy, and perhaps another £30m still to spend on transfer-fees. Not a bad summer, if it pans out. Now, about a back-up keeper…maybe another center-back…

And now, on to Sami Khedira…

9 Replies

Now what? Having already signed Sánchez for something in the £30-35m range and with rumors that we’ll have Mathieu Debuchy in for close to £10m, we face an awkward and uncertain period. It’s 12 July, and we’ve completed one major signing already. Do we sit back, content with the notion that we’ve bolstered the squad quite well enough already, or do we keep scratching the silly season itch? I suspect the latter, if out of habit if not out of necessity. With six weeks or more still to go before the transfer window closes, we’re probably going to crave more news, not less. Could we really count on ourselves to leave well enough alone? Nope, not with a rumored £65m or still in reserve and names like Sami Khedira drifting in the breeze…

Do we really need him, though? Sure, Arteta and Flamini are not getting younger or faster. There is talk that Arteta could leave for as little as £6m to Fiorentina and others, but even if he does leave, does it make sense to go after Khedira? We already have a number of young, aggressive, players who could play “DM”. Even if none of them fits the mold of the rugged, holding midfielder who can shield the back four, Jack Wilshere, Abou Diaby, Aaron Ramsey, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have each shown that they can play as the more-forward thinking box-to-box midfielder with Arteta or Flamini sitting back. The question then becomes, could we field two such players alongside each other, trusting one to show the discipline necessary to stay back while the other presses upfield?

If the answer to that is “no”, it begs the next question of whether we should go after Khedira in the first place. After all, he’s no more a holding midfielder than Wilshere, Ramsey, or Ox have been. He’s not a particularly good tackler, nor is he especially fast, and his eagerness to get up the pitch, even under Mourinho’s more-stubborn, bus-parking days, suggest that he’s not the defensive destroyer many have pined for as they look for Vieira’s heir. With Khedira likely to command a transfer fee upwards of £25m, this current question becomes a bit more pertinent. At 27, he’s possibly more set in his ways and is certainly a more known quantity than are other players we’re linked with, such as Lars Bender (25) or Morgan Schneiderlin (24). Each of them plays a more defensive role for his respective club.

However, Bayer Leverkusen have already sold Emre Can to Liverpool and seem unlikely to part with both him and Bender in the same window, and with Southampton likely to demand a princely sum for Schneiderlin, getting a player like Khedira for that £25m might make sense. For one, I’d question our putative need for a midfield destroyer; it’s not as if Arteta or Flamini has inspired terror in our opposition. Much like the acquisition of Sánchez, adding a player like Khedira might enhance our fluidity and flexibility on the pitch. His class and experience probably make him one our best options for a defensive midfielder, and his relationship with Mertesacker could help ease him into a more conservative, defensive role without tethering him too tightly to shielding the defense.

With Khedira and Ramsey partnering in front of the defense, then, we could feature two marauding, box-to-box midfielders that could extend the Wengerball notion one step further—if they can forge an understanding that reminds one of them to stay back while the other bombs forward. Can such a relationship hold? If not, could we trust Khedira to commit to a more-defensive role? Arsène has admired Khedira for some time now, and so the larger question might be whether he’s willing to open up his checkbook for another marquee signing. If he is, Khedira’s role, as well as the selection-dilemma referenced above, becomes just the kind of quandary we could relish discussing. “Khedamsey” might not be a great mashup, but it certainly sounds better than “Flamteta”…

Follow @woolwich_1886!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);