The night Alexis knew game was up at Guns

ALEXIS SANCHEZ’S love affair with Arsenal ended 24 hours after Valentine’s Day last year.

Starsport can reveal the Chile ace had verbally agreed to sign a new deal with the Gunners – according to one source he even shook hands on it with Arsene Wenger.

But as temperatures dropped below freezing in the capital of Bavaria on February 15, the striker suddenly saw no long-term future with the Londoners.

That was the night of the shattering 5-1 defeat by Bayern Munich.

And it was also the night that Sanchez realised the Gunners were not one of the great sides in Europe and nor were they going to be.

After half an hour of the first game in the Champions League knockout stages it had looked promising.

Mood

Sanchez made it 1-1 for Wenger’s men, scoring on the rebound after his penalty was saved by Manuel Neuer. It was his 20th goal of the season.

But after that it was to prove a night of utter capitulation at the Allianz Arena, with the German giants scoring three goals in 10 minutes before adding a fifth two minutes from time.

Even worse, Bayern boasted 75 per cent possession.

Sanchez’s happy-go-lucky persona changed markedly after that night, his mood darkening considerably.

He became surly and petulant in both training and matches and at the start of March had his infamous trainingground bust-up with skipper Laurent Koscielny.

It led to him being dropped for the 3-1 defeat at Liverpool and then, three days later, came a humiliation even bigger than the one in Germany.

The north Londoners lost the second leg to Bayern 5-1 at home and in the 72nd minute Wenger hooked Sanchez, replacing him with Lucas Perez.

After being substituted, Sanchez gave an odd wave to the crowd as he was greeted