Of course the best thing for Arsenal and our lingering Premier League title challenge would be for the Chile international star Alexis Sanchez to shrug off the injury that he seems to have picked up in the win over Watford yesterday. With Arsenal facing a difficult away game at West Ham next weekend it would be a major blow if we had to play it without the star striker.
But when have things ever gone the way of Arsenal when it comes to injuries? So we had better get used to the idea that Alexis might not be able to play, leaving Arsene Wenger with the question of which Arsenal player should replace him.
One option is to bring back Olivier Giroud in the centre forward role and move Danny Welbeck out wide. But even though it looks like the Frenchman is over his poor run of form I do not think this is a good idea as the pace and movement of Welbeck spearheading attack has been great and is much better suited to this match than Giroud’s strength as a target man.
So then you are looking for a direct replacement for Sanchez and it has to be either Theo Walcott or Joel Campbell. Just like with Giroud, I see the pace and movement of Walcott as the better choice over the technical ability of Campbell, for the West Ham match at least, as long as the England forward is in form.
That fourth goal yesterday will have done Theo a power of good and his all round performance was encouraging, so is he ready to step in for Sanchez next week?