Much has been made of the frustration that Alexis Sanchez showed after Arsenal’s 3-3 draw at Bournemouth, but if his team-mates shared his attitude, then they would be top of the league.
He is a passionate, emotional player, and those characters will always argue with people. He is a winner and that is what I love about him. He confronts people, he demands more. He is a better player than anyone else at Arsenal and he works harder than the lot of them, so he has every right to be angry. Very few players have Sanchez’s natural ability, but there is no reason why they shouldn’t have his work ethic, too.
I would highlight an incident towards the end of Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on New Year’s Day to show why Sanchez is so valuable to his club.
There were only a few minutes left and the game was in the bag. Sanchez lost the ball to Wilfried Zaha deep in the Palace half. Many players would have let Zaha go, but Sanchez chased him all the way back and executed a sliding tackle near his own penalty area.
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Arsene Wenger might decide to leave Sanchez out of his starting XI. If he does so, I’d urge him not to include him on the bench, either. Leave him in London, give him a weekend off, let him chill out and spend some time with his family.
The squad that Wenger picks should have enough to deal with Preston.
If he has, say, Olivier Giroud, Alex Iwobi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain among the forwards, then that ought to be plenty.