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Can he be our ‘next Anelka’?

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Yaya SanogoArsene Wenger has praised Yaya Sanogo’s start to his Arsenal career by recently suggesting the 21-year-old could turn out to be the ‘new’ Nicolas Anelka.

Sanogo, who was signed from Auxerre last summer, was surprisingly picked ahead of Olivier Giroud in our midweek defeat to Bayern Munich and impressed the Emirates faithful and Wenger.

The France Under-21 international featured just two times before the Bayern game, but Wenger had faith in the untested youngster and says many people said the same when he stared Anelka at 18 years of age, with the French striker eventually being sold for £22 million having arrived from Paris Saint Germain for just £500,000.

Wenger told SkySports.com:

‘When I started to play Anelka, everybody said: ‘Why are you starting with Anelka, why not buy a striker?’’

‘We won a championship with him. If we feel they are ready, then they play.’

‘There’s a potential there. Sanogo is world champion of the Under-20s, if he was an English centre-forward and was world champion of the Under-20s, you would not ask me these questions. It’s as simple as that.

‘We look at the quality of the performance of the player, not at the number of minutes he’s played.

‘If you only looked at that, nobody would ever get a chance. And up front, it’s not the experience that decides.’

Wenger finished off by saying Sanogo did well in the two games he’s played in:

‘I have to make my decisions with my conscience and I base it on who can help us win the next game. He did not look out of place in the two games he played.’

To be fair to Sanogo, he has done well in the games he has featured in, particularly against Liverpool in the FA Cup the other week. He has shown glimpses of his ability and the potential is there, but he still has much to learn.

Can he become the ‘next’ Anelka’? To be fair I don’t think you can compare the two as they are different types of strikers. Anelka was quick, made clever runs and always wanted the ball to his feet or ones to run onto, while Sanogo likes to use his strength, hold up the ball and bring those around him into play. So in that comparison, no, I don’t think Sanogo will be the ‘next Anelka’.

It’s huge praise from Wenger and has probably placed a little bit of unwanted pressure on Sanogo, but I can see where Arsene is coming from.

Hopefully for the player’s sake he lives up to his expectations and develops into the player Wenger envisages him to.

Can he become our ‘next’ Anelka’?

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