Arsène Wenger admitted he thought Alexis Sanchez played too deep for Arsenal against Southampton on Sunday afternoon.

Alexis did manage to come up with an assist right at the end of the game, but before that he played poorly and lost possession a massive 32 times.

That figure has only been bettered by an Arsenal player once this campaign, when the Chilean lost possession 34 times against Manchester United.

Wenger explained what he thought the problem was in his post-match press conference, saying: “I think in the second half I was happy with his performance but in the first half I feel he played a little bit too deep.

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“We need him a bit higher up the pitch, especially when you dominate the game it’s important he player in the final third. Sometimes he’s tempted to drop a bit deeper into midfield. It’s difficult when you start 35 yards away from goal. It’s difficult to score.”

Alexis is someone who loves to go direct, take a shot, take a player on, or play a final ball. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in the final third, but it makes him a liability in deeper positions.

He’ll either try and take the whole team on, take a long-shot with no chance of going in, or play a very risky long-range pass. Most of the time, that just results in the Gunners giving the ball away.

Of course, the rest of the time, it tends to work out in his favour. He’ll get an assist or a goal, add to his stats, and most fans forgive him. But those goal contributions – one every 140 minutes this league campaign – don’t make up for all the chances he wastes, in my opinion.

At least not when he’s wasting record numbers like in the last week. If he can’t sort it out, the January window is coming up, and it might be time for Arsenal to move on.