Arsenal fans cannot blame all our recent struggles in the Premier League title race on player of course, especially when he is one of the best players at the club, but I think we all expected a lot more from the Chile international Alexis Sanchez once he returned from two months on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
And it appears that the problem may have been that the player himself expected the same. And not just that he expected more from himself, especially in terms of finding the back of the net, but that he puts a lot of pressure on himself to perform and so when it does not happen for one reason or another he beats himself up about it more than any of us fans do, as his comments on the Arsenal website this week suggest.
Alexis said, “I think that I’ve adapted really well in terms of fitting into the club and it’s been very good. But at the same time I’m not the kind of person to become complacent or think, ‘That’s it’.
“I always want to improve and give my absolute all to the team.
“The truth is that I do enjoy [the responsibility]. When I don’t score goals I feel like I’ve failed the team and I feel guilty.
“I go home, can’t sleep and I just think I have to play better.”
Is that why the Chilean striker was quoted suggesting that the Arsenal players need to show more belief? Was it himself he was talking about as much as any of his team mates? Let us all hope that now he provided the club a big boost with the equalising goal in the most difficult of circumstances in the north London derby last weekend, Sanchez will be able to relax a bit more and find the form that made him the runaway vote for Player of the Year in his debut season as a Gunner.