Can Arsenal regularly rely on Alexis to bail them out of danger?

Arsenal’s victory over Bournemouth on Sunday maintained their very strange recent form. They may be unbeaten in 19 games but they’ve been distinctly unconvincing in at least half of those. In the end, a 3-1 victory may look comfortable enough, but from the moment Mathieu Debuchy went off they looked vulnerable at the back and even having gained the lead at 2-1, there was little sense of control. In the end, and not for the first time this season, they won because of the quality of their attacking options, Alexis Sanchez foremost among them. 

“Our mentality was strong,” was the Chilean afterwards, echoing a constant theme of Arsenal over the past few years. And it is true that they keep getting themselves out of tricky positions. Even in the past few weeks, they’ve found improbable late goals against Burnley and Manchester United to take a win and a draw. They came from 2-0 down to beat Ludogorets and somehow scrambled a draw against Paris St-Germain. Even in the 4-1 win at Sunderland, when they were demonstrably the better side, there was a strange lull when they allowed Sunderland back into the game, gifting them an equaliser. 

This is the paradox of the Arsenal mentality: they keep getting themselves out of scrapes which suggests resilience but then, if they were actually mentally strong, they wouldn’t get into those scrapes in the first place. Still, the huge positive is that they have got through November without a league defeat despite an awkward fixture list - and November, for Arsenal, is always tricky. This season brought five points from three games, which is statistically about what you’d expect given they average 1.59 points per game under Wenger in November - 0.29 points per game worse than their next worst month, August, and 0.56 points per game worse than October - but actually rather better than that given that run included games at home to Tottenham and away at Manchester United. 

Alexis has been vital in that. Against Bournemouth it wasn’t just his two goals, it was his all-round energy. The opening goal was a classic example of that. Adam Federici rolled the ball to Steve Cook who was immediately placed under pressure and then gave the ball to Alexis with a weak back-pass. That is how pressing works in its simplest, purest form, and the Chilean took full advantage. He’s scored eight goals this season and set up three, but he’s also made 1.1 tackles and 0.5 interceptions. 

“Even when he looks dead, he is still alive and always finds the resources to do something special when you win the ball back,” Wenger said. “He has that gut feeling to find that extra gear to be dangerous when ball comes to him.” 

That’s why he’s so vital to Arsenal. On the equivalent weekend last season, Alexis was barged into a television camera by Ryan Bennett in a game at Norwich and ended up being out for two months. By the time he returned at the end of January, a defeat at Southampton and draws at Liverpool and Stoke had already begun to sap the life from Arsenal’s title challenge. 

Wenger flirted with danger this season by picking Alexis for the game at Old Trafford when he had just returned from international duty with Chile, with whom he had sustained a hamstring strain. It appears that that risk has subsided now. Olivier Giroud, who has scored three and set up one off the bench this season and is in danger of making himself an invaluable substitute, may not agree, but for everybody else around Arsenal, Alexis’ fitness is a major relief. 

The key now is whether their form can follow their results. They can’t keep getting away with it forever, relying on Alexis to bail them out of trouble, but Arsenal have got through a tricky spell and are just three points off the top of the table. If they actually start playing convincingly, who knows what could happen.