Arsène Wenger has expressed his unhappiness at how Alexis Sánchez was used by Chile during the international break, describing it as unfortunate and saying that it represented a concern.
The Arsenal forward played for 85 minutes of his country’s 5-0 home win over Venezuela on Friday of last week while he completed the 90 minutes of the 2-1 home defeat by Uruguay on Wednesday night. Both matches were friendlies. Sánchez made the 15-hour return flight from Santiago to London on Thursday and Wenger saw him for the first time in training on Friday morning, as he finalised his preparations for Saturday evening’s visit of Manchester United to the Emirates Stadium.
“Unfortunate,” Wenger said, when Sanchez’s minutes against Venezuela and Uruguay were brought up. “It’s a concern, of course. He looked a bit jaded just before he went and I will have to check him before the United game. Don’t ask him the question because he will say he’s perfect.”
Wenger would happily ban all international friendlies and he is open to the accusation of double standards in that he has no problem in playing an in-form player all of the time. Before Sánchez departed for Chile, he had played in every minute of Arsenal’s six fixtures since the October international break – when he had completed the 90 minutes for Chile in both the friendlies against Peru and Bolivia.
Wenger, though, has long been unapologetic about his stance. The clubs pay the players’ wages, he has noted, and it is their prerogative to use them how they want. He is merely keen for a measure of common sense to be applied by the national teams, particularly when they are not playing in competitive ties.
Wenger was asked whether there had been any dialogue between himself and the Chile manager, Jorge Sampaoli. “No,” he replied. “I don’t even know him.”
Wenger is conscious of the dangers of burnout, especially for a player in his first season in winter break-free English football, and Sánchez has had a frenetic period since finishing the last campaign at Barcelona. He was one of the stars of Chile’s run to the last 16 of the World Cup, where they lost on penalties to Brazil – Sánchez missed his kick; his only blot – and, after joining Arsenal for £31m on 10 July, he has made light of the traditional settling-in difficulties, starting in all but two of the club’s 18 games in all competitions while he also began each of Chile’s friendlies in September, playing 85 minutes against Mexico in California and 86 minutes against Haiti in Florida.
His performances for Arsenal have been dynamic and the goals decisive – seven of his 12 have come at 0-0 in matches while he also scored at 1-1 against Manchester City in September. He opened the scoring for Chile against Venezuela and Uruguay. Sánchez always wants to play but there could come a time when Wenger has to remove him from the fray.
