Arsenal: Five replacements for Alexis Sanchez
By s.a. rose
Antoine Griezmann, Atletico Madrid
Arsène Wenger has said that if Sanchez and Ozil leave, that he will just go out and get Antoine Griezmann and Marco Reus as replacements. Likely Atletico and Dortmund will be 2017 Champions League participants and probably happy to hand over the third-best player in the world according to FIFA’s The Best and the cover boy for FIFA 17 respectively.
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Wishful thinking, Arsène. With six clubs fighting it out for a Champions League position in England, Arsenal’s chances of qualifying are lower than the teams Griezmann and Reus play for. Atletico being a solid third favorite in Spain and Dortmund being Germany’s second biggest club.
Comparing Sanchez with Griezmann, both have had outstanding starts to the 2016-17 season and have been scoring goals for fun. Both are forwards that like to cut inside from the left and wear the Number 7 shirt. That may be where the similarity ends. While Sanchez plays mostly at the point of attack or on the left-wing, Griezmann has seen most of his success playing in a support striker role, just off of a traditional Number 9 striker – for France, that is with Oliver Giroud.
While Wenger might hope to re-create that particular French connection (as it resulted in Griezmann winning the Golden Boot at the 2016 Euros) at Arsenal, Giroud is currently thriving in a super-sub role and a role for two strikers has been out of fashion at the Arsenal since the Thierry Henry-Dennis Bergkamp days.