Although Arsene Wenger dismissed the idea that Arsenal are completely reliant on our summer signing Alexis Sanchez, the manager did accept that the Chile international is a massive player for us. As reported by ESPN, the manager spoke in glowing terms about his striker and all thge things he brings to the Arsenal team, including 14 goals already from just 22 games.
Wenger said, “He has a huge desire, no complex and a fighting attitude. Even when he misses something, it doesn’t affect him. I believe as well he is very mobile, very determined and he has the sense to be in the right place in the box.
“On the goal scoring front you can say he is the dominant figure, but it doesn’t reflect the truth to say Sanchez is the only player.”
But Alexis is obviously important enough to Arsenal that the Frenchman is unwilling to take the former Barcelona star out of the firing line, even though he admitted that all the club games combined with trips back to South America to play for the Chile national team were taking their toll on the forward’s fitness and energy levels and leaving him more at risk of picking up an injury.
Wenger said, “He is in the red zone. You can see that when he plays, but he can dig deep. I think he played his 27th game since the start of the season on Wednesday, if you consider the international games and the travelling on top of that.
“Unfortunately, you never know how far you can push. We are not scientific enough to predict that completely, but he has great recovery potential. He recovers very quickly and he is always very sharp and ready to play.”
And an away game at Stoke is always likely to be a bruising encounter, so all we can do is hope that Alexis comes through the game unscathed and then maybe he can have the rest he deserves when Arsenal travel to Turkey for the final Champions League group game next week.