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Injuries, Sanchez’s Fitness And The Important Things Arsenal Need To Solve To Push For The Title

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Arsenal currently occupies 4th place on the Premier League table, and might just as well finish right there when the season ends come May.

The Gunners have never failed to finish outside top 4 for more than 2 decades, and that isn’t a big achievement any longer, even though such consistency is unarguably impressive.

This term, Arsenal have about the same chance of winning the league, and as they do of making a top 4 spot or even dropping out of it together. Such is the inconsistency that has beleaguered the north London club’s campaign every other season.

But things could change for good this season, and the Gunners can get their hands on another title since 2004 if these 3 shortcomings of theirs are quickly addressed.

Sanchez’s fitness

Alexis Sanchez is definitely Arsenal’s best player right now, as he is breaking boundaries and relishing his new role as the main striker.

However, he needs to be taken very good care of and get rested once the satisfactory results are gotten, in order to keep him in excellent shape for as long as possible, as he will have a big say in Arsenal’s campaign this term.

The 27-year-old returned from the international break lacking full fitness after picking up a knock, but he has played 180 minutes of football since then. While his fast recovery and work-rate are commendable and deserving of appraisal, Sanchez’s fitness might be in danger as any slight injury could rule him out for many weeks.

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He remains a very strong player and that has psychologically given him an advantage over the years, but Arsenal must do all they can to prevent a nasty injury that could just be waiting to strike him down.

The incoming injuries

It’s that time of the season when tonnes of injuries besiege the Gunners’ squad. Cazorla is already out with an Achilles injury, Debuchy picked up a hamstring injury at the weekend, while Bellerin is racing against time to recover from an ankle injury.

Mertesacker and Welbeck were already ruled out of action coming into the new season, and it is almost the norm for new injuries to be expected within the squad around this time.

That has always hampered the club’s ambitions, but if they are able to get it right this time and record zero casualties as the 2nd half of the season draws near, it could be their chance to finally emerge as title favourites.

They haven’t been in a long while.

The Rigid tactics and formation

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Arsenal have only one formation : 4-2-3-1. Other clubs do too, but most managers are flexible with theirs, playing some other formations identical to the primary one.

That doesn’t seem to be the case at the Emirates. This hasn’t changed in years, and it has made some to accuse Wenger of being a tactical dinosaur who is still stuck in the late 90’s footballing philosophy.

The overall results after every campaign in a long while have been identical. If Arsenal don’t end up as 1st runners-up with many points behind the winner, then a 3rd or 4th spot which came about after they managed to slightly edge the team right behind them will be it.

The competition for the top spots look very fierce this time around, and if Arsenal wants the title, Wenger must come up with the best plan nobody, including Mourinho will be able to rival.