There some reports about Arsenal in the football press this week talking about Alexis Sanchez and how Arsene Wenger was keen to give the Chile international star a winter break like he used to have at his former clubs Udinese and Barcelona, because with his recent international commitments it has been over three years since the striker had a proper summer break.
The obvious problem for the Arsenal boss, however, is the fact that he needs to do this without damaging the Gunners’ chances of challenging for the Premier League and the other possible trophies we could win, so it is a matter of delicate timing for the manager and he may just have been given a helping hand with the early return from injury of the summer signing Lucas Perez.
The Spaniard was just beginning to show the quality that made Wenger sign him when he picked up an ankle problem in the EFL cup win over Reading a month ago. At the time it was thought he would be out until christmas but and Arsenal.com report reveals that he could feature in our next league cup match against Southampton on Wednesday.
Wenger said, “Lucas is for the first time in training today [Friday]. He might be in contention for Wednesday [against Southampton], but one training session is not enough to be involved on Sunday.”
I reckon we will see him in midweek though and Wenger will be hoping he plays well as that just might give him the opportunity to rest Alexis as soon as possible to minimise any risk of our star man picking up an injury himself. The next four games after that are against West Ham, Basel, Stoke and Everton, so is this the right time to give Sanchez his winter break so we can get him back fresh and fit to face Man City on December 18th?
Bob.