Arsenal have taken such a critical pummelling these last few weeks and months that it seems only right to acknowledge their potential to score bags of goals when everyone is fit and happy to be wearing the shirt.
Alexis Sanchez is plainly less than elated to be here, which is why part of the crowd jeered his arrival from the bench against a charitably passive Bournemouth side who have lost all four this season.
Danny Welbeck scored twice, Alexandre Lacazette (who scored once) was the best player on the park and Olivier Giroud, like Sanchez, also made an appearance as a substitute. Not a bad bunch, on paper. Arsenal needed this, after the 1-0 defeat at Stoke and the 4-0 whacking at Liverpool.
But a couple of cold showers await. One is their drop to the Europa League, against Cologne on Thursday; the second is the weekend’s visit to Chelsea, who will not spectate while Arsenal construct their nice passing triangles, as Eddie Howe’s team did.
The jeering of Sanchez at his 75th-minute introduction was entirely reasonable – and brief. The Chile attacker buzzed around without much effect. Reintegration could take some time. And there is £60m riding on it: the sum Arsenal turned down, 12 months short of his contract expiring.
Sanchez remains the best player in this Arsenal squad, but Lacazette is already moving in the right direction to acquire that title should his team-mate leave in January or next summer.
The reception for Sanchez was not something that Arsene Wenger, his manager, was eager to discuss, but it told a story about his standing now. “We have to accept responses from people, you know. I don’t know why [there was frostiness],” Wenger said. “The only way to get people on your side is to perform. I had a chat with him after the game. If he looked unhappy, maybe he wanted to score. To give interpretations of attitudes is also very dangerous.”
Wenger started with Lacazette supported by Welbeck and Mesut Ozil. Sanchez returned from the Bolivia-Chile game on Thursday morning. His non-selection was part travel-related and probably part political. It would have sent the wrong message to the rest of Wenger’s team to pick a player who had tried so hard to escape.
Inexplicably, Lacazette, a £53 million purchase, had started on the bench at Liverpool. However chaotic Arsenal’s summer transfer trading, he was a necessary upgrade on Giroud, a useful striker, still, but not the best fit for the team’s quick approach play.
Welbeck, 26, has been one of those Arsenal acquisitions who have been long on promise but short on delivery – certainly on goals scored (his injury record has been a factor). But this was one of his target-hitting days. The Englishman’s first was inelegant but soothing. A move down Bournemouth’s right produced a Sead Kolasinac cross which Welbeck used a combination of face, shoulder and head to force past Asmir Begovic.
His second, after the break, reflected the visitors’ passivity, which shaped the first 45 minutes. Dan Gosling dawdled on the ball in his own half and was mugged by Lacazette, who moved it to Aaron Ramsey, and thence to Welbeck, who shot left to right across Begovic. Three-nil.
In between, Lacazette had displayed his potential to be the kind of centre-forward Arsenal really need: quick, agile and a cool finisher. An Ozil pass and Welbeck lay-off set Lacazette up on the edge of the Bournemouth area, where he stopped, took a touch and measured a curling shot into Begovic’s top corner.
Of Welbeck, Wenger said: “He gets stronger and stronger. Let’s not forget he was out for a long time. He’s a team player, that’s why the coaches love him. He is a guy with a physical potential that’s huge as well. People were not completely convinced that he’s a great finisher but these goals will help. He’ll get more relaxed in front of goal. I liked his second goal. It was the really clean finish of a goalscorer.”
Howe has problems. Even Jermain Defoe was worryingly off-form, lasting only 70 minutes. Bournemouth’s boss, who has switched to three at the back, called it a “poor performance from start to finish,” adding: “I don’t think the early goal helped, but yeah, we were a bit passive, a bit reactive. But the most disappointing thing to me, added to off-the-ball problems, is that on the ball we were really wasteful and negative and slow. That’s really unlike us. Usually we’re a team with good rhythm, and pass the ball very well.”
In the week, Wenger said he could see Arsenal challenging for the title. Here, he said: “Look, we had two [losing] performances – at Stoke we played quite well, created plenty of chances, and had 75 per cent possession.”
The Liverpool defeat was beyond justification: a perfect mess. In this easy win, Lacazette at least showed there is life beyond the Sanchez obsession.