Another week goes by in the Gunners' world of football and of course, with it now entering international week – Arsenal’s superstars will have now performed for club and country and here at Vavel we take a look at which of these players has been the star man of the week.
An obvious contender and many's personal choice for the star man of the week is Alexis Sanchez, who has clearly been a revelation since arriving in North London and has consistently shown week-in week-out why he is one of the best. This week the Chilean netted twice, both in the defeat to Swansea and for his country in their 5-0 thrashing of Venezuela. There has been a recurrence of a ‘one man team’ theme towards Arsenal as Sanchez has scored the majority of the goals and has been the only consistent figure on the pitch. However, there has been very good play from the rest of the team at times for his goals – although plenty would still say he is Arsenal’s star man of the week.
Another contender for this week was England star Jack Wilshere who has recently tasted rich form for club and country, seeming livelier in games and looking sharper and faster like he was before a poor patch of injury issues arose. The midfielder played the full 90 minutes for England yesterday in their 3-1 victory over Slovenia. Unfortunately for the 21-year-old he has not been as influential as Alexis, which is why he lost out this week.
The last contender is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has had an increased run in the side of late and has rewarded Arsene Wenger’s faith in the tricky winger by delivering on the pitch. With his pace, skill and drive for goal he has caused defences many problems this week, both against Swansea where they disappointingly were left defeated 2-1, despite Chamberlain putting in an excellent shift against the Swans’ back line. The reasons behind the choice with the English forward is his lack of defensive awareness in the loss at the Liberty Stadium when Calum Chambers was outplayed by Swansea and Ecuador winger Montero who was too fast and skilful for the full-back on the night. Chamberlain failed to offer support which meant he missed out this time.
All in all, Sanchez was the obvious choice as his performances have been consistent; he has scored goals and always looked in good form which was shown clearly this week. Whereas the other two contenders unfortunately could not impose their good performances on the games they featured in to provide for their teams - despite both being on the winning side for England.