It is good for Arsenal fans to hear Arsene Wenger sounding so upbeat and confident as he prepares the Gunners for the latest attempt to end our poor run of form and results against the bigger clubs in the Premier League. And the reason why the manager is full of belief that Arsenal can come away from the Etihad stadium tomorrow with all three points is clear, Alexis Sanchez.
Despite beating two of the teams above us in the table recently, those wins over Southampton and West Ham are not really enough to stop the talk about out struggles against the big teams, because we have played against Chelsea, Man City, Man United, Liverpool and Everton this season and not won a single game.
But Wenger feels that the win is coming and believes that the excellent Alexis is the key to it, as a Daily Mail report reveals. And that belief comes despite the Arsenal boss admitting that the Chile international star was a little below par in some of the big games earlier this season.
Wenger said, “‘Yes, at Chelsea and Liverpool he wasn’t at his best. It’s maybe because the team has not been as effective away from home, because when you are a striker you depend a little bit on how much your team pushes forward.
“But he can use that as a motivation to play well on Sunday. As a team we didn’t play well as we would like (against Liverpool and Chelsea) and it was difficult for the strikers to get good balls. But he has had some good away games, too.
“We are going through a period where confidence is important.
“So a big performance could be decisive. I feel we have to play with a bit more freedom. From every big game you gain confidence when the result is good. Let’s focus on going there and giving ourselves a chance to win by putting a great performance in.
“We want to have a good balance between attacking and defending because we know that City attack very well.”
I am not that worried about the stats that show Alexis has been much less effective away from home for Arsenal this season. One reason is that the whole team has been and we should not blame Alexis for that. Another big reason is that Wenger has clearly made a point of mentioning it and knowing our number 17, that will make him even more determined to prove the stats wrong.
So watch out Man City, senor Sanchez is gunning for ya…