Arsène Wenger says he has been waiting to convert Alexis Sánchez to a striker for two years. The Chilean has scored 11 Premier League goals this season since switching from the wings to a regular central position, including a hat-trick against West Ham United last weekend. But Wenger has admitted he doubted his own instincts that Sánchez could lead the line for Arsenal.
“I think he has found a good mixture,” Wenger said, before Saturday’s home match with Stoke City. “He knows when to come off and when to go in behind. He has more freedom and he takes advantage of his technique much more. He was happy out wide because in his head he was a wide player. But I had to persuade Thierry Henry as well.
“You see that the guy who plays wide and can score goals can score even more goals in the centre. I always saw that in Sánchez. But I must honestly say that there were many times when I played him [in that position], last year or two years ago, that I thought I was wrong. The few experiences I attempted with him through the middle were not convincing and I remember even in one game I changed it at half-time.”
That game was at Everton at the start of the 2014-15 season when the £31m Sánchez was a new arrival from Barcelona. Arsenal found themselves 2-0 down before half-time and Sánchez came off for Olivier Giroud.
Giroud went on to snatch a late equaliser and earn a point for his side. But the Frenchman has had to make do with the substitutes’ bench once more after a delayed return from Euro 2016 allowed Sánchez to assume his role in the team.
Wenger says Giroud’s situation is as much an issue of timing as anything else. With Giroud and Sánchez negotiating new contracts, Wenger has told his fellow Frenchman he must get used to the competition if he wants to stay at the club.
“At the start of the season when Sánchez came back he took advantage of the fact Giroud was not here and not ready so I could give him more games,” Wenger said. “Sometimes when you have too many people an experience that is not immediately conclusive cannot go on for too long because you are under pressure. If it doesn’t work over one or two games and you have a top player on the bench, you’re tempted to change it.”
Thanks to Sánchez’s form and Giroud’s absence, the experiment worked and Wenger says that times have changed. “I want Giroud to stay, I want Giroud to extend his contract. He is a very important player at the club, on the pitch and off the pitch. I want him to stay but, if he signs, he has to live with the competition. He has to decide if he can live with what is going on.”