The Arsenal and Chile international star Alexis Sanchez was already in the red and running on empty as we headed into this current international break, and this was acknowledged by the coach of his national side. So Jorge Sampaoli suggested that he was going to have to be careful with the exhausted Arsenal forward.
Knowing Alexis and his desire to not miss a minute of playing the game if he can help it, the manager would have to rely on his own caution rather than that of the player, while at the same time having to weigh the balance between care for his player and the need for Chile to win as they are playing two World Cup qualifiers.
Well that balance came down on the side of the team´s success last night, as Alexis played the whole 90 minutes of their game against Colombia. Apart from Alexis getting injured, this could hardly have been worse for Arsenal, not only with our star playing the whole game but because Chile were held to a draw and that meant they were knocked off the top of their group by Ecuador. He did not even manage the morale boost of scoring either as he was denied by the Arsenal and Colombia keeper David Ospina.
This means that Sampaoli and Chile will be even more desperate for a win in their second game away to Uruguay on Tuesday night. Guess who will be the first name on the Chile team sheet for that one?