The Quest To Replace Robin Van Persie
Arsene Wenger has failed to adequately replace Robin Van Persie after he was sold to rivals Manchester United back in 2012. RVP was an absolute goal scoring machine while wearing the Arsenal shirt, bagging 96 goals in 164 appearances for the Gunners. RVP also won the Golden Boot in his last year, when he netted 30 times for the Gunners.
Ever since then Arsene had used plenty of options up top to replicate the productivity the dutchman had in the latter years of his Arsenal career. It started in the same window they sold RVP when they grabbed Lukas Podolski, as well as French Striker Olivier Giroud who helped Montpellier claim the Ligue 1 title before Paris Saint-German got their big $$. Wenger didn’t decide to splurge into the market to grab the Centre Forward that is needed to carry out a formidable title claiming campaign.
It wasn’t until the Summer of 2014 that Arsene decided to spend big on an attacker, when he signed Camp Nou reject Alexis Sanchez. Once again, Arsene placed his faith in Giroud to help lead the Gunners to their first title since the memorial Invincibles did it in 2004.
However, an unfortunate injury (well, what player DOESN’T get injured at Arsenal) occurred to Giroud when he broke his leg right after scoring the equaliser at Goodison Park in a match against Everton. This left Wenger with only Yaya Sanogo as the only “Centre Forward” left on the squad. This forced Arsene to make a deadline day purchase to grab Manchester United’s Danny Welbeck, who relished the opportunity to play as the central striker, a chance he could never have at United.
The Danny Welbeck era brought mixed results. Yes he had the pace of Theo Walcott, as well as the physicality that Giroud brought in both air and ground, but his end product was just as shoddy as either of them. In the end, Giroud came back from injury 4 months later and finished the campaign with 14 league goals while Welbeck only scored a whopping total of four, which wasn’t enough to lead Arsenal to the title.
The summer window opened in 2015 and Theo Walcott managed to convince that Wenger that he could play up top centrally, which would provide a solid in-house solution for Arsene since Giroud was prone to droughts on the tally mark and Welbeck picked up a mysterious knee injury.
Walcott provided Wenger with a more flexible option up top. A player who can blow the top off a defense and make them pay with pace. Eventually Arsene reverted to using Giroud up top as the talisman. Giroud had a nice run of form to help Arsenal keep pace with darlings Leicester City, but Arsenal ended up falling 10 points behind the Foxes as the Cinderella story was completed.
With no Giroud available to lead the line due to an extended holiday after falling short at the Euros, Arsene decided to look for yet ANOTHER in-house solution. This time, he looked towards Alexis Sanchez, who thought that he can replicate what Suarez did for Liverpool.
In a campaign that has goal scorers such as Arry Kane, Aguero, Vardy, and Zlatan, the onus was on Alexis to prove that he could play up top and give Arsenal the goals they needed to keep the pace. So far this campaign, this has brought mixed results with Alexis only scoring 4 goals across all comps, but one could imagine how much more effective he can be in his normal position on the wing. Once again, there is no Danny Welbeck since he’s still recovering from another knee injury suffered last season.
After a summer of being linked with French Hitman Alexandre Lacazette, as well as Jamie Vardy’s release clause (who used Arsenal for leverage on a new Leicester deal), Arsene found Lucas Perez, the former journeyman front man for Deportivo La Coruna who netted 17 goals for them last term in La Liga. Gooners moan about anything, but Lucas Perez seems to be a player to look out for in this campaign once he gets settled into the tempo of the game.
Arsene still hasn’t found the replacement for RVP but it’s not for a lack of trying. Let’s see if Alexis makes the cut as “Diet Suarez” when the season is done in May. Maybe we’ll just have to wait for the next manager to find that elite Centre Forward to help Arsenal lift up the title in May.
