ALEXIS SANCHEZ was hated in the Arsenal dressing room before making a transfer switch to Manchester United. Football journalist Raphael Honigstein claims Arsenal players were unhappy with Sanchez as it became clear he wasn’t going to sign a new deal with the club. In the end the forward moved to United in January on a free transfer with Henrikh Mkhitaryan moving in the opposite direction. But Honigstein claims just how much Sanchez was disliked has not really been reported.
“It’s been under-reported just how badly the whole Arsenal dressing room hated Alexis Sanchez,” he explained on the Totally Football Show podcast. “They really felt he was just playing up for the camera. “He was doing all these things like ‘Oh, I’m trying! What are the rest of you doing?!’ “Arsenal put up stats inside the dressing room after every game showing kilometres run, the ing etc. “Sanchez would regularly come out with the lowest mileage – by a big distance.”
Sanchez has struggled since moving to Old Trafford, only managing to net on one occasion. One of the quirks of Man United’s second half of the season has been how poorly Alexis Sanchez has integrated into Jose Mourinho’s side. When Sanchez left Arsenal for Man United, many Gooners were fearing the Chilean would become the ‘new Robin van Persie’. Of course, that may still happen in the fullness of time.
But Alexis hasn’t bedded into Old Trafford smoothly in his first few months. He’s only scored once – a rebound from a saved penalty against Huddersfield – while his all-round play has been underwhelming at best. Against Liverpool on Saturday, Sanchez was as effective for United as Mohamed Salah was for the Reds. The Chilean had another quiet game as the Red Devils saw off arch-rivals Liverpool in the Premier League at the weekend. Sanchez will want to impress tomorrow night when Manchester United face Sevilla in a crunch Champions League last 16 clash. The score is 0-0 on aggregate after the first leg in Spain.
