Arsenal famously made a 40 million plus 1 bid for Luis Suarez the year before he moved from Liverpool to Barcelona, which ultimately was the catalyst for us to buy Alexis Sanchez from the Spanish giants. According to Arsene Wenger, the Gunners got just as good a player in Sanchez as Barcelona got in Suarez, thanks to the desire that both of them have to win, win, win, at whatever the cost!
“Sanchez and Suarez are at the same level,” Wenger was quoted as saying. “Suarez is a central striker and Sanchez is more a wide player who likes to go up and down and is involved in dribbling, but they have similarities.
“Sanchez has that desire to go forward and provoke, he is a guy who provokes chaos in the defences because he has a go at them. He does not go across, he goes straight. His desire to go forward, to provoke opponents, to run at people, creates danger.
“And he plays to win in every single game. I have had players like that before, players who want to win so much, but he has the style as well.
“What Sanchez has is that, in the first two yards, he is lightning quick. He has that explosive attitude linked with his spirit and that makes him even more spectacular.”
“At the start, when I saw Suarez went to Barcelona, I thought that is the obvious deal, one going one way and the other, the other way,”
“So I had not much hope. But I met Sanchez’s agent in Brazil at the World Cup, I had a few meetings with them, and I could see [there was an interest in Arsenal].
“He is already better than he was when he arrived. In his final finishing there is room for improvement, in his final ball he is already much better, his vision is quite good and incisive.
“I was surprised that he came on the market.
Wenger was rightly criticized for playing a semi-fit Sanchez in our first game of the season, and the Chilean still looked a bit jaded against Crystal Palace, but hopefully he should be back up to speed for tomorrows game against Liverpool, who definitely suffered after losing Suarez. Hopefully Alexis can show them why they made a BIG mistake in not doing a swap deal…….