Arsenal may be losing a quality player in Alexis Sanchez, but they can return to playing the way they used to.

Alexis Sanchez was an excellent player for Arsenal. Not only was he the most outstanding individual talent, he consistently proved it by providing goals and assists.

He was decisive on many occasions.

His presence did indeed transform the Arsenal team, just not necessarily for the better.

It’s a strange thing to say about a player who has been so effective since arriving from Barcelona in 2014, but in being so, he altered Arsenal’s style of play.

Every time he got the ball, Alexis would look for something game changing. Be it a dribble a through pass, or a shot, he was never one for simplicity nor patience, two of the biggest principles of Arsenal’s style over the years.

That was why he was so successful at the club. He provided something very different during times when the team was stale.

It’s also why his departure could be a good thing. Arsenal were developing a habit of giving the ball away as much as they were keeping it.

This was noted in the Independent, who provided stats for Alexis’ turnovers: dispossessed 48 times, mis-controlled the ball 64 times, and played more inaccurate passes than any other Arsenal player.

At his best, it’s easy to ignore. After all, why should we care about a few stray passes or heavy touches when he’s tearing teams apart on his own? But it’s only at his best that you could take the bad with the good. When he was out of form, he became a hindrance; you started hoping for one moment of quality to justify the wastefulness.

Without him, Arsenal may return to a more measured approach. Henrikh Mkhitaryan will take better care of the ball, but perhaps at the expense of ingenuity.

It might suit Arsenal’s attack, especially Alexandre Lacazette, to be supported by less individualistic players.

It should be said, though, that even without Alexis, Arsenal still had a habit of giving away possession.

They were dispossessed 20 times in the 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth – a game Alexis didn’t even play in.

In the end, we may see an improvement in our ball retention and be a bit like the old Arsenal again.

But it’s worth remembering that that version of us wasn’t all that great, either.