ARSENAL TRANSFER SPECIAL: Arsene Wenger's £82m spending spree assessed
THE virtuoso performance of Alexis Sanchez in Arsenal's 3-1 win against Hull means Arsene Wenger can go into the summer confident in his own form when it comes to making big-money transfers.
Arsene Wenger is known for being reluctant to part with hard-earned cash at Arsenal
The two goals by the Chile star took his tally to 24 in what is always supposed to be a difficult first season in England - payback enough for the £35million Wenger splashed out on him last summer.
Certainly it took his previous big-money signing, Mesut Ozil, a lot longer to settle into life in the Premier League and even as recently as January Wenger was worried it might not work out for the Germany international.
Yet Ozil, too, has found his feet in Arsenal's impressive run-in (18 wins in 21 games in all competitions since New Year's Day) and shown the Gunners have a strong platform on which to build if Wenger spends his money wisely.
The Arsenal manager has always been reluctant to part with the club's hard-earned cash in the past but last summer was something of a change in approach.
Having opened the purse strings with the £42.5m capture of Ozil in August 2013, his pre-season spending before this campaign approached nine figures.
Alongside Sanchez, Danny Welbeck was recruited from Manchester United for £16m while the same amount was paid to Southampton for Calum Chambers.
David Ospina cost a more cut-price £3m from French side Nice while it took £12m to prise Mathieu Debuchy from Newcastle.
An unfortunate string of injuries to Debuchy ankle, shoulder and, most recently, hamstring means it is hard to judge his success just yet.
But Ospina proved a handy stick with which to hit Wojciech Szczesny when Arsenal's senior goalkeeper stepped out of line the Colombian seamlessly taking to Premier League football when given his chance after Cigarette-gate.
Mesut Ozil Player Profile
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Chambers also earned early plaudits, especially for his Champions League qualification performance as a centre-back against Besiktas.
Subsequently, he has been allowed to develop largely away from the limelight but at 20 has plenty of time yet to turn into a of Tony Adams-shaped rock at the heart of the Arsenal defence.
Which brings the assessment on to Welbeck, the most controversial of Wenger's signings. Louis van Gaal said he was good enough only to sit on the bench at Manchester United and it turns out he was right.
Robin van Persie has scored a Premier League goal every 209 minutes. Wayne Rooney, 228, James Wilson, 332, even Falcao, 395.
Mathieu Debuchy Player Profile
Meanwhile, Welbeck's four goals this season have come at an average of every 417 minutes, nearly seven hours apart.
Weirdly, though, "not good enough for United" does not necessarily mean he is a bad signing for Arsenal.
For instance Welbeck offers different qualities to Theo Walcott, who he appears to be fighting for a place on the right of the three forwards behind the main striker.
Certainly, he has been far from a disaster for the Gunners, not least because it was his goal that knocked United out of the FA Cup.
Wenger needs to sign a top-class striker to spearhead a title challenge next term and perhaps by signing Welbeck he is simple putting in some of the groundwork.
He has shown with England this season he is capable of weighing in with his share of the goals, which will take the pressure off anybody Wenger brings in ahead of him.
Wenger is canny enough to accumulate strikers before he speculates, and so far that has been a recipe for success.
Now it is up to the Frenchman to work out what is needed to win the title rather than just challenge for it.
