Arsène Wenger says it is inevitable that Alexis Sánchez is worried about his lack of goals for Arsenal this season. The striker has endured one of the most turbulent phases of his career, having been denied the summer move he wanted to Manchester City and failed to qualify for the World Cup with Chile.
Sánchez has scored twice for Arsenal – against Köln in the Europa League and Everton in the Premier League – and is under the spotlight as the countdown begins to his club’s fixture against City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The 28-year-old tested the Swansea City goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski, with one fierce shot on Saturday but he was otherwise quiet in Arsenal’s 2-1 win. As always with the demonstrative Sánchez, it was easy to read his body language and it looked, at times, as though he was trying too hard to force a change to his luck.
“He runs after a goal at the moment so he’s a bit frustrated when he doesn’t score, like all goalscorers,” Wenger said. “I’m not worried about it. He works hard and it will come back quickly. You can never try too hard. At the moment he’s marked well, they double up on him, but he still creates many dangerous situations and the goal – he just has not to worry too much. I know you always say that to strikers and they still worry but over a longer period he has always scored and that will come back.”
Sánchez looked set to get his move to City on transfer deadline day, after they offered £60m for him and Arsenal indicated it was acceptable for a player in the final year of his contract. But Arsenalwere never going to sell if they could not sign a replacement and Sánchez was forced to stay put when they failed to close a deal for Monaco’s Thomas Lemar.
The City game promises to be a test of Sánchez’s mentality but Wenger has no fears on that front. “I am not concerned because I am not suspicious of the performances or the desire to win of a football player,” Wenger said.
“When you are a football player, you have a social contract with the rest of the team and I never question that. Once you don’t respect that, it’s difficult to say that you play football.”
Wenger described City as “a good opportunity for us to show we have quality” and he reminded his audience that it was certain Pep Guardiola’s so far all-conquering team would falter at some point.
“It’s normal that people have them as champions-elect because they are on a good run and people always extend these good runs to the end of the season but, at some stage, they have to be stopped,” Wenger said. “It’s true because nobody does that, nobody runs away [with the title]. We can just focus on the game, prepare well and give our best.”
Wenger was asked whether the pressure increased on players from game to game during an unbeaten run, such as that which City are on. “Yes, but the most difficult pressure is when you don’t win,” Wenger said. “When you win, OK, you have a kind of pressure but the real pressure in our job is when you don’t win and you have absolutely to win.
If tomorrow you are a manager and I give you the choice to sit on the bench of Crystal Palace or City, what would you say? So I think, yes, it’s a pressure but it’s a nice one.”