Just 28 touches and not a single shot testing Simon Mignolet...
Hotshot Jackpot Villain of the Week
Week one of Hotshot Jackpot and punters eyeing up the £250k prize were in good shape – Sergio Aguero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Alvaro Negredo and Ross Barkley were all popular picks who had duly delivered in front of goal. Approaching the seventh game at the Emirates, Arsenal v Liverpool, there were seven punters in the mix who were just two lucky strikes away from the perfect start to the season.
Four of those seven punters were on Alexis Sanchez – and who can blame them? Two punters were waiting on Alexis Sanchez and Eden Hazard – and the Chelsea man duly delivered on Monday night against West Ham.
The Arsenal front man was 6/4 to score at anytime against Liverpool. He was coming off a very successful summer where he helped Chile retain their Copa America crown. Last season he averaged pretty much a goal every other game, and posted a conversion rate of 12 per cent. Plus he was against a Liverpool backline that was there to be tested. Alberto Moreno’s escapades at left-back are more unpredictable than a week in the Big Brother house, Simon Mignolet’s goalkeeping is as reliable as the Irish weather, while 30-year-old Ragnar Klavan was making his Premier League debut at centre-back.
Yet Sanchez couldn’t find the onion bag – despite Arsenal scoring three times – and left four punters dreaming of what could have been. But there’s so much more to Sanchez’s performance that makes him Villain of the Week.
- Sanchez managed just 28 touches on Sunday – not one of the other 21 players who started the match had less
- He only managed three touches in Liverpool’s penalty area – and on two of those occasions he lost the ball
- Sanchez managed just one attempt on goal in the entire game – a free-kick from more than 30 yards out that hit the wall just before half-time
- The striker lost possession six times in total and was caught offside on another four occasions
- With Arsenal chasing the game in the last 20 minutes and punters desperate for a Sanchez goal, he touched the ball just four times from the 70th minute until the 95th minute
So for that crime against the beautiful game Alexis Sanchez, you are our Villain of the Week. Four punters could have had a squeaky-bum Monday and been 90 minutes and one goal away from a whopping £250k, but you couldn’t find the onion bag on Sunday. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was able to dance around four defenders and slot past Mignolet, yet you couldn’t even test the Belgian keeper.
