One of the biggest things that Arsenal fans learned from the Copa America final last night, when Chile took Argentina to extra time and then a penalty shoot out that they won, was how cool our striker Alexis Sanchez is under pressure.
Maybe to say we learned it is wrong, because the 26-year old has showed Arsenal fans that on numerous occasions. Maybe I should say we re-learned it, but the way Alexis kept his head in the cauldron of the national stadium in Santiago to score the winning spot kick with the cheekiest of panenka penalties was seriously impressive.
This was arguably the Arsenal star´s best game of the tournament and he nearly gave Chile a winning goal in extra time and that tells me that the burnout I was fearing from him was just a one or two game dip in intensity. We should not under estimate his performance under pressure either, because the great Lionel Messi and other big name players wilted under the spotlight of the final.
The second big thing we learned was, once again, something that I thought I knew already and that is that Arsene Wenger has got his valuation of Gonzalo Higuain spot on. If the Arsenal transfer rumours were right a few years ago then the thing that stopped the Gunners from signing the striker was the exorbitant price. And Napoli are apparently after about twice that amount for him this summer. Thanks, Napoli, but no thanks. Higuain was poor, missed a couple of good chances and failed from the spot and that should be enough to put our transfer links with him to bed once and for all.
Arturo Vidal was below par as well but at least he played well for most of the tournament and O personally would love to see Wenger sign up the `Warrior´. Oh and as a little bonus, it looks like the Man United record signing Angel Di Maria has done his hamstring. Has our luck on the injury front finally changed I wonder?
Anyway, big congratulations to the Arsenal striker and his team mates and hopefully he will come back to north London in a great mood and ready to add the Premier League trophy to his growing list of silverware.