NOW BE OUR TOP GUNNER
Wenger tells Alexis to sort head out after Chile choker
ARSENE WENGER admits Alexis Sanchez is in a ‘difficult’ state of mind following Chile’s shock World Cup exit.
Chile were sent packing after a blunder from Sanchez’s Gunners team-mate David Ospina gifted Peru a 1-1 draw against Colombia in midweek. Now Sanchez, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has been challenged to focus all his energies on Arsenal after his international despair. The 28-year-old has yet to score a league goal this term after the collapse of his £60m move to Manchester City in the summer and his body language has spoken volumes. He is likely to be left out of the starting line-up for tomorrow’s trip to Watford due to his mental state and having only returned from South America yesterday evening. But boss Wenger has challenged him to prove he is a true star by bouncing back from his World Cup blow. “To play at the top level, part of it is dealing with that kind of disappointment,” he said. “If you want to make a big career it’s a bit of a roller-coaster – sometimes you are on a high, then three days later you’re on a low. “It’s part of our job. Some deal better than others with it. “He is in a very difficult state of mind. Chile just won the Copa America twice, now they don’t even go to the World Cup. “Sanchez is 29 at the end of the year, so the next one he will be 33. He expected to go. It’s certainly a big disappointment for him. I have no doubt that he wants to ® perform. He never goes on the football pitch to lose a football game, never.
“Sanchez is a winner. I watched the game with Brazil, what a physical game it was.
“He played against Dani Alves, that was a real battle, believe me.
“You want your players to be in a positive mind, and as well to have positive experiences. To go to the World Cup is the target of every single player who plays football.
“You have always to set targets when you’re a football player. When one is gone, you focus on something else.”
Wenger believes that Sanchez is suffering like David Beckham used to for England.
He said: “I would say you have in every generation a player who carries the pressure of expectation of a nation.
Absorb
“In France it was Zinedine Zidane, in England it was Beckham. In Argentina of course it’s Lionel Messi. In Chile, it’s Sanchez.
“In a national team there is a guy who has to carry the pressure and absorb it and protect a little bit the rest of the team.
“Overall what does it mean? It means they have to deal with the lows as well.
“Remember 1998 when Beckham had been sent off – he has been slaughtered here. He’s not been picked for the first two Euro qualifiers and he has been treated in this country like a guy who has killed somebody, you know.
“They have to take both the positives and the negatives as well.”
But Wenger insists Ospina’s error will not damage his relationship with Sanchez.
Peru’s crucial goal came from an indirect free-kick which Ospina touched on its way in.
Had he not, it would have been disallowed and Sanchez would have been on his way to Russia next summer.
Wenger added: “I don’t think that will be a problem, but of course it happens sometimes.”