One other problem with the kind of controversy that Diego Costa provoked at Stamford Bridge on Saturday is that discussion of it tends to obscure all other actual football issues. Some of those issues may also be far more relevant to a team’s long-term form.
Take one performance at the other end of the pitch to the Chelsea striker. At one point, the ball fell kindly for Alexis Sanchez, and it seemed like he was finally about to hit his first goal of the season. Instead, the weight of that wait seemed to bear down on him.
The Chilean swung at the ball and missed, fairly badly miskicking. It wasn’t just that he squandered the chance, but the way he did so, and the number of times he’s done something like that. Alexis has had the most shots (31) in the Premier League this season, but is worryingly yet to hit the back of the net.
It threatens to make what might be no more than an early-season quirk into something of a longer-term concern. Arsenal’s dominant player isn’t influencing games in the way he started to at this point last season, and that has been one reason why the side themselves haven’t quite started this campaign in the surging manner many expected in the summer.
They are devoid of their main firepower.
All of the consternation over Costa meant Arsene Wenger didn’t really have to get into the issue of his misfiring marquee forward at the moment, but this is something that has been bubbling for some time and will surely come up at the Friday press conference if the drought continues past the Capital One Cup derby with Tottenham Hotspur.
This is not just about the six blank appearances of this season.
His lack of goals was also a huge theme of Chile’s Copa America victory. Alexis did score a brilliant improvised header in the group win over Bolivia, and was composed enough to gloriously dink in the winning penalty in the final shoot-out against Argentina, but there was still a sense he wasn’t at his sensational best.
Then again, that has pretty much been the case since January. After a run of 17 goals in 26 games on hitting his first for Arsenal in a Champions League win over Besiktas, Alexis has only managed 8 in his last 34 in all competitions. It’s quite a difference, and for quite some time. The most frustrating aspect is that the player who is good enough to take them on to a higher level has himself levelled out. He gradually began to drop down rather than drive the club on.
Of course, if we’re going to go back that far, many at Arsenal might justifiably point to the fact he only hit that first goal for the club in his fifth appearance, and that also came after a disrupted summer with the World Cup.
It’s perfectly reasonable to expect, then, that he will recover his form fairly soon and one goal may even be enough to do it given the amount of shots he’s attempting.
The one wonder, however, is whether this extended drop in scoring rate is also a result of the player being over-worked and too willing. Wenger has already joked about how Alexis’ eagerness makes him nearly impossible to rest, but that may soon become more serious if this spell goes on.
There’s also the reality that successive disrupted summers will have a cumulative effect on a player’s fatigue, not to mention the significant emotional hangover from actually winning - and playing a key part in delivering - Chile’s long-awaited first ever Copa America.
Wenger cited that as a reason for the slow start of his German players last year, after they won the World Cup, and it’s hard not to do the same here.
There have been a few drops in Alexis’ overall play so far this season, compared to last season. He is tackling less (at 1.5 compared to 2), intercepting less (0.8 from 1.2) and dribbling less (2.2 from 3.3). Even though he is playing more passes, far fewer of those have been key passes, at 1 per game compared to last season’s 3.3.
This adds to the sense that he is not at the same sharpness that his usual high-intensity game demands, but instead trying to force himself to compensate by shooting on sight, only for the lack of sharpness to be seen in another way.
It need not be a long-term concern - Alexis is too good a player. Right now, though, it means Arsenal aren’t as good as they can be.
A goal in a derby could go an awful long way to solving that problem.
How long will it be until Alexis rediscovers his best form for Arsenal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
