There was one good thing to come out of the Copa America match for Arsenal fans last night, and that was that our Player of the Year Alexis Sanchez did not pick up an injury. He and his Chilean international team Eduardo Vargas edged out Peru and will now play the final against Argentina or Paraguay on Saturday evening, or the early hours of Sunday morning for those of us watching in Europe.
So just one more game for Alexis before he gets a well earned rest and boy, does he look like he needs it. We know that the 26-year old is a bit of a machine and just wants to play football, but Arsene Wenger spoke about him getting close to burnout point halfway through last season and it started to show on the pitch.
He did not really get much of a break even then as the boss could not risk doing without him, so after playing 54 games for Barcelona and then having an extended World Cup finals in the heat of Brazil, Alexis played another 52 games for the Gunners in a season extended by the FA cup final and now by the south American championships.
We can take some heart from the fact that the striker did look fresher in the first three group games, after just a short break, so we can hope that the three weeks or so he will have after the Final will be enough to recharge his batteries, because he did look jaded last night.
Alexis did try his best but could not exert his usual influence and just did not have that same spark that made him such a hit in the Premier League. Could this turn out to be a major problem for Arsenal at the start of next season?