Arsene Wenger must have been beside himself after hearing that the Arsenal and Chile international forward Alexis Sanchez had played the full 90 minutes of a bad tempered World Cup qualifier against Uruguay, despite his national coach Jorge Sampaoli revealing before the game in Montevideo that Alexis had picked up a knock to his calf and was therefore an injury risk.
The concern about that calf problem together with the long haul flights involved and two full games played will surely make Wenger´s mind up once and for all to rest the overworked player, at least for the next Arsenal game away to West Brom on Saturday and probably for the Champions League game at home to Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday.
Alexis definitely needs a rest both to recharge his batteries and to make sure that his tired body does not pick up a serious injury and you would have to say that our next two Premier League opponents, West Brom and Norwich, are ones that you would pick if you had to rest a key player.
The problem is that our list of players who are fit to play, especially in the front three, is a bit limited right now so how does Wenger line up the Gunners without Alexis this weekend? A lot will depend on whether we have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Aaron Ramsey back and if either can play then they will probably come in on one side of Giroud with Joel Campbell on the other.
If not the boss will have to be a bit more adventurous and might decide to play one of our young Gunners such as Alex Iwobi. Another option would be to put Santi Cazorla on one flank where he has played a lot over his career and then bring either Arteta or Flamini onto the centre with Coquelin.
How do you think Arsenal will line up against the Baggies?