A former AWIMBer who is quite anti-Alexis claimed to me that Mesut actually covers more ground in a match, which I found hard to believe even though Mesut does run further than most people think.
I'll be pleased if Alexis plays for us for another year. Might even win us the league, and if we are playing better as a team he won't feel he has to do everything himself, which imo is the exact thing that polarises opinion about him.
How did you get Monty's login, SW?
We will need to build a functioning midfield, of course, if we are to challenge. And I did say "might". It is a word which covers quite a broad range of possibilities and outcomes.
EDIT: And in the last game of the season we outplayed the champions so ner.
Didn't you join the "Wenger deserves cancer" brigade at some point last season? If so, how can you possibly now be countenancing us winning the league? That makes literally no sense...
I fúcking loved the cup final more than I can describe but I can't quite shrug off the feeling that Chelsea basically treated it like the Community Shield
Yes, the trouble with Mesut is that he tends to cover the wrong sort of ground. For me, the best moment in the Cup final was when he chased back and took Hazard out. It got a big cheer too precisely because for a millionaire, number 10 stranieri, so to speak, in a team that's struggled, he doesn't do enough of it. His status within our team and our club demands it and supporters and his team-mates too probably, recognise it.
As for Alexis, losing him this Summer, for practically any reason at all will not look good. Top Four will be just as, if not even more, complicated next season, let alone the title.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
He did qualify it with building a functioning midfield, which will be quite a feat (especially with that useless c*nt Ramsey in it).
And yes, I make you right about Chelsea. That's the only way I can explain why their central midfield completely dominated us in the league but seemed utterly absent that day. Kante in particular.
I want us to keep him purely on a sporting level. The whole 'new era' of having Ozil and Sanchez, can't end before we've given them a really good striker to play with. It's taken 4-5 years to finally land one. At least give us a season to see Ozil,Alexis and Lacazette together. It's the least the club can do, after subjecting us to another two years of Arsene