With Arsenal fans and players licking our wounds this week after losing the Champions League home game against Barcelona thanks to two goals from the great Lionel Messi and another blank from the Arsenal attack, the last thing we want to hear is a player like Joey Barton spouting off about where it all went wrong.
But he has never been one to keep his opinions to himself and so the journeyman midfielder was quick to lay into the Arsenal and Chile forward Alexis Sanchez for what he deemed as a lacklustre and ineffectual performance against his former club.
And as you can see in a Metro report, Barton went further than merely criticising the way Sanchez played against Barca. He used the game as evidence to show that our striker is not actually the quality player that he has been hailed as. The suggestion is that his failure to shine in this big game is a regular trait of Alexis and this apparently proves that he is not a really top level player.
Barton said, ‘Alexis Sanchez, when he signed for Arsenal, I said a bit about him being slightly inconsistent.
‘Whilst everyone was getting carried away with him, I didn’t think he would be the piece in the jigsaw that took Arsenal on to be league champions – ironically this season they have a good chance of doing that.
‘That was a prime opportunity on the elite-level stage [against Barcelona] – go and be a match-winner, show everybody that you are an elite-level match-winner and I think he failed to do that.
‘On the other side of the coin, Messi is a proven elite-level match-winner and he didn’t have his most flamboyant, his most exciting game but he did what the best in the world do.’
So is he right? Well I would definitely agree that Alexis did not really do it for us this week. And he has been below par since coming back from his two months out of action with injury. However, when you lack back at his career so far, with Barcelona and Chile as well as with Arsenal, you cann see quite a few times when Sanchez really has stepped up in the big games.
He has starred and scored in more than one El Clasico encounter against Real Madrid, he has scored big goals in Champions League and cup games, including one in the FA cup final last year. And just this summer he score a cheekily chipped ‘panenka’ penalty to secure Chile a first ever Copa America title.
Does that sound to you like a player that struggles in big games? I just hope that something snaps Alexis out of his current slump as soon as possible. Maybe someone should read Barton’s comments to him before the Man United game on Sunday…
Joey Barton hasn’t been right about anything since he first stopped sucking his mother’s teats. He’s a low-class, non-league quality player who’s hauled himself up by his willingness to deliberately injure his betters. It makes him useful, but not intelligent or very good. Hiswillingness to spout ridiculous, baseless dreck makes him popular with the constant whiners and doom and gloom idiots who can’t seem to understand that in football, shit happens. Haven’t any of you ever played?
A great offensive player scores a goal every third game. A world class forward scores every other game. Alexis has, since coming to Arsenal, been world class. At the end of the season, hewill show that class. Rooney went weeks without a goal and pundits like Barton wrote him off as past it, then he got his scoring touch back and the same people who were sending him to the scrap heap were licking his boots.
I really do not understand why everyone is reacting the way they are to Arsenals loss. It was, for all intents and purposes, a 1 goal loss to a team that hasn’t lost a Champions League game this year. Flamini made a mistake. He isn’t a bad player, he shouldn’t be kicked off the team, and the truth is, the guy’s done a very good job filling in for Coquelin most of the year. He’s not a world class DM. Everyone knows that. He knows that. He’s a good player.
Arsenal got screwed by the officials all game and yes, Flamini made a poor play. All players do. john Terry’s scored his share of own goals. So has Koscielny. They’re both great center backs. When players try to make plays, they don’t always succeed. Flamini has always tried hard and given everything for the club. Anyone who watches the games knows that.
If Arsenal had won or even managed a draw, no one would say anything abuot Alexis other than he is often the hardest working, more positive player on the pitch. He had a long spell out, and he’s probably not back to his best yet, but this is a world class player. A brilliant, skilled, attacking footballer who gives everything for the badge. Joey Barton is a skidmark on the underwear of football. He shouldn’t be allowed to speak Aelxis’ name never mind question his quality.
Arsenal were underdogs going in. They lost. Form held. So why the panic? They played the best team in the world to a stalemate for most of the night. It was, until the penalty call, a terrific game of football. A little luck, an foot to the left on a Giroud header, a little more control from Ox, and we’re having a shock-the-world week. Aresenal can be criticized for letting one slip and making a couple of mistakes, but please. Blaming Alexis? Isn’t Barton the same moron who said Ozil should be sold after his first season? As Bugs Bunny would say; “What a maroon!”
We really need more level headed analyses like this, top answer
Alexis has one problem and one problem alone .
Giroud up front
i’ve been saying we didnt have such a horrible game versus barca as ppl are making it out. but i’ll draw the line at flam. we could do better and its on wenger that he tried to scrape by and in summer 2015 failed to get a quality cdm backup for coq. when coq was inevitably injured in nov/dec, teams like liverpool just waltzed thru our CDM area with flam looking really busy but in actuality failing to really impede liverpool’s progress. we lost a lot of points due to wenger’s failure to buy coq backup. and we may have lost the league for it. wenger’s a very intelligent man, but that extra little bit to go on and do everything he can do win the PL: thats missing.
More people should quote bugs bunny in their responses
He is right about Sanches and his game time how long do we give him to show if he has it for The English Premiier Lg. If he scores will that set him up for more games, yes he has heart and never gives up but it’s in the ability to create and score that Wenger bought him, mabey play him up front to see him get his confidence back but if he doesn’t in prove drop him to the bench. CB
If we fail to win at man utd, then our chances of winning the league are pratically over. Spurs and leicester have shown more desire than us if we all are to be honest
Why? suppose Leicester will win over Norwich that will put them 5 points ahead. That’s two games. Suppose Spuds win over Swansea. That will put the 3 points ahead. That’s one game. And that is the worst case scenario if we lose. Even if we win against Manure there will be a great chance we will not be top of the league Sunday so I don’t see why you write them off already.
He’s right about Messi. But you don’t have to be very smart to say that. As for Sanchez, alright he is in a bit of a dip but historically under Wenger Arsenal picks up in March and going strong until the season end. I am pretty sure it will happen this year too.
I find it rather amusing that it is always the under achievers, the never been’s that continue to ridicule and criticize players. Do you ever hear of the greats, current and retired ever criticizing other players the way in which this Barton idiot does? Especially a player like Sanchez, I mean the guy was instrumental for his country in the Copa America Tournament and scored the winning penalty against Argentina in the final…no pressure really! Joey Barton – Butthurt knowitall
one of the most consistent,skilled player in the world right now-purely world class.cuts players well,gives good crosses,if given a shooting opportunity from outside the box-knows to score.a very hardworking player in training and on the pitch.sanchez is an asset to any team.to expect a player to hit top form for whole life is non-sense.the analysis from barton is unreasonable and immature.messi scored from open play bcos he has suarez and neymar to support them who are as talented and EXPERIENCED.while chamberlain and some players dont hav that experience or lacks form right now.the player chamberlain wa when he was signed,scoring spectacular goals and giving nice crosses,but now his form has been-dont know wheter its bcos of low motivation levels or lack of confidence.so if sanchez had players as good as himself to support him in attack,then u will see that hes not far or i may even claim he is on same level asmsn..his performances and stats at udinese,and barcelona werent co-incidences……some ppl like to put others down and are always waiting for an opportunity due to jealousy or whatever !!!
He has scored against both Manchester teams since he arrived here, he has scored against Madrid, he has scored against the big teams in Italy, he has scored in top internationals and friendlies….but lets just ignore that, lets just focus on his dip in form after injury….by the way since when has a numpty like Barton become a sound board for intelligent and constructive debate?
Barton is praying he is right he is just jumping the gun so to put down an Arsenal player because at Arsenal you see quality foreign imports and he hated getting shown up by us. A patch of bad form and you write off a player from the first team of Barca going back quite a few years and is the best left winger in prem last season on the first team of Arsenal no doubt and has almost single handedly won Chile the Copa America which includes Brazil Argentina messi and co. If these are the restrictions for whether a player is top class or not well then there is no top players outside of Barcelona, and even barca players can go a run of games being sluggish after time out of side so Barton does not make any sense. Grasping at straws only a fool would say such things yet speak highly of English players playing in bottom half of table. Actually mad at myself now for reading this dicks comments and being annoyed when I’m not even surprised.