All the focus at Arsenal right now is on the final games of the season at Wembley and the chance for Arsenal to win back to back FA cup finals and make us the most successful club in the competition´s history as well as making Arsene Wenger the joint top manager in it.
But the Frenchman already has other concerns to deal with and he is not happy about it. In a BBC report the boss makes it clear that he is struggling to understand the decision of the football governing body FIFA about the schedule of the Copa America in Chile this summer as it means that the Gunners will almost certainly have to start the next Premier League season without our star man Alexis Sanchez.
Assuming that the host nation reach the last four of the South American competition, Alexis will still be playing for his country just 10 days before the Gunners begin our pre-season games in mid July. And with the Premier League´s early start less than a month later on August 8th, Wenger must start planning how to cope until Alexis can rejoin the playing squad some weeks later.
The prof said, “I am really surprised Fifa authorised that.
“I’ll watch [the Copa America], but with a little bit of fear.
“Sanchez has played 50 games for us and goes there again, having already played in the World Cup last summer.
“It is disappointing that Fifa speak a lot about the health of the players, but when you look at the competition that is organised, this Copa America, and look at the date of the start of the Premier League, it is not reasonable.”
So it is not just the match fitness and fatigue of Alexis that our manager is worried about, as there is an increased risk of Alexis picking up an injury as well and that really would be a hammer blow to our title hopes. The one plus point to all this is that Chelsea, Man City and Man United all have South Americans in their squads as well.
Arsenal also have David Ospina heading off though and knowing our luck I am pretty worried that it will be Arsenal that starts next season hurting the most from the Copa America. So how will we cope?