Alexis Sanchez put in a less-than-impressive performance against Burnley on Sunday, but he still managed to step up at the crucial moment to grab all the Gunners’ glory.
Alexis looked back to his best against Tottenham last week, but that appears to have been a false dawn as the Chilean’s performance against Burnley was like the rest of his season so far – pretty dire.
Sanchez was creative and dangerous against Spurs, making three chances and taking six shots, and it left the Gunners’ rivals under constant threat.
In turn, that allowed other players to express themselves, as the Tottenham defence had their gaze focused on Arsenal’s 2016/17 top scorer.
At Turf Moor, it was a different story. Although Alexis still created just as many chances in the game (four on this occasion), he only had one shot in normal time, and that shot went wide of the six-yard box, let alone the goal. No wonder, considering it was taken from well outside the box.
His take-ons were less successful, with only 60% completed compared to 83% last week, and it just seemed like he wasn’t going to be able to make anything happen on this occasion, just as against Manchester City when he was heavily criticised.
However, as so often with Alexis Sanchez, he was there to provide the drama, this time from the penalty spot at the very end of added time.
Just as in 2016/17, when he scored an injury time winner for the Gunners against Burnley, Alexis stepped up to the spot after Ramsey was fouled, and slotted the spot-kick away well.
It wasn’t the best performance, but in the end it it didn’t matter as Arsenal took all three points back to the Emirates in a rare away win.