• The Houseboat
  • Alexis Sanchez (Latest: Medical today + Final fee approx 35m GBP)

He has been top notch from the right wing this season for Barcelona. IMO he had trouble adapting to playing out wide at Barcelona, but this season he has got it right. He scores, is constantly making runs behind the back 4, and is excellent on the ball.

Of course Sanchez shits all over Vela on the flank. However, if we are looking for a player with similar traits to Walcott on the cheap, to further our funds towards that monster striker, then Vela is a good choice with his buy back clause. Kami, Vela has done a lot of growing up in Spain. He is very different these days from the player who left us.

Being linked to Di Maria, Pedro & Sanchez already this summer. I wouldn't think a wide player would be our priority and then look to strengthen there. Hopefully we will sort them all out but I do doubt that.

Don't think we have any chance with Di Maria, but the latter 2 is realistic. Alexis my pick of the bunch, but after the world cup his value is going to rise greatly.

i doubt the world cup will add much to his price tag. he's a well known quantity at this point

I doubt we are getting a wide player at all this summer.

Me too. We have numbers there and Wilshere and Chamberlain are on course to have very good seasons next year. ST, CM, RB, GK.

marv3llous wrote:

I doubt we are getting a wide player at all this summer.

Giovinco. Year left to run on his contract and he's really ickle

that's the number one criteria for a modern wenger player.

JazzG wrote:

Being linked to Di Maria, Pedro & Sanchez already this summer. I wouldn't think a wide player would be our priority and then look to strengthen there. Hopefully we will sort them all out but I do doubt that.

we need an additional scoring forward. Pedro and Sanchez fit the bill as guys who can play next to Giroud or (e.g.) Balotelli. we are 1 goal per game behind Liverpool and City. we need to buy goals. no more Cazorla and Rosicky passing to each and not shooting.

I know we do but we need a CF, DM & RB more urgently + 2/3 squad players. So the wide goalscoring forward might have to wait until next year.

If we can get a good one, put him in. I'd rather we had Giroud + Sanchez than Balotelli + Oxlade. With Costa gone, I am nervous that we are going to get a super quality striker who makes it worthwhile to ditch Giroud

Sanchez is actually originally a striker and plays there for Chile.

Forgetting about formations for a second, city won the league with

Attacking midfielders: Silva/Nasri/Navas/Milner
Forwards: Aguero Negredo Dzeko

Maybe we can get something similar in

Attacking midfielders: Ozil/Cazorla/Walcott/Chamberlain
Forwards: Sanchez Podolski Giroud

Good comparison. Sanchez is similar to Agüero when playing upfront. Crazy work-rate too; has the same feistiness as Tevez.

That's not good enough to close the 30 odd gap in the goals scored column.

It doesn't have to be. It just has to close the 7 odd gap in the points accumulated column.

Okay, I'll rephrase. The Arsenal front three is nowhere near the City front three.

Correct. Any team having Giroud up-front is going to struggle against decent opposition. It's like playing with 10 men. Not only does he not score but his overall contribution against the likes of City, Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool etc. is next to nothing (besides missing sitters). Any one of 4 Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo and Toure have done more than Giroud in the big games.

Until we have Giroud up-front we are going to struggle against decent teams and even with a haul like 53 in 60 against the bottom like we did this season we'd still not win the league.

Any suggestions that it's going to take super-quality to usurp Giroud are laughable. Any half decent striker can match his league haul at Arsenal.

At least half our problems against big teams stem from having no physicality on midfield. I love Arteta, but we need to do better.