Arsenal striker Alexis Sánchez is in the fitness “red zone” according to Arsène Wenger. The Arsenal manager is aware that the Chilean, whose relentless energy has been such a major part of his dazzling start to the season, is running low on fuel having played almost every game since he joined the club after a busy summer at the World Cup.
“He is in the red zone,” said Wenger. “You can see that when he plays but he can dig deep. He played his 27th game on Wednesday since the start of the season, if you consider international games and travelling on top of that. Unfortunately you never know how far you can push it. We are not scientific enough to predict that completely but he has good recovery potential. He recovers very quickly.”
It was Sánchez who delivered the stoppage time winner as Arsenal beat Southampton in midweek, his 14th goal of the campaign. He remains at the forefront of the manager’s plans ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Stoke this weekend, and Wenger has more immediate concerns with his defence.
With Nacho Monreal out potentially for several weeks having torn ankle ligaments, Arsenal are very low on numbers at the back. Kieran Gibbs is nursing a hip injury and Laurent Koscielny requires caution as he manages his inflamed achilles. Wenger is hopeful the latter pair will come through Friday training sufficiently to play this weekend.
Wojciech Szczesny is available and Mathieu Debuchy will be in contention next week. Wenger spoke of “calculated gambles” in assessing how soon and how much the at-risk players can play.
Arsenal travel to the Britannia on the back of three consecutive wins but Wenger knows it is scarcely a straightforward mission at a venue that tends to be heated – a hostile atmosphere between these two clubs that has been intense since the incident when Ryan Shawcross broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg.
“It’s a football game, it’s not a hate game. You want to focus on playing football,” said Wenger. “We are in a job where you have risks. The physical risk is part of our job, we accept that. What you want is to go into a game with everybody being 100 percent committed but fair. After, you accept that any accident can happen. You do not want to have any suspicions before the match starts. That’s not very good.
“Stoke have a little bit of a different style now. Against us it’s always a very committed game anyway. We prepare ourselves to be at the level of our commitment and dictate the way we want to play. I think we have four draws and two losses against them [in the last seven], and not enough wins so we have a good opportunity to add one.
“I believe it’s a tough place for everybody. They don’t lose many games at home, they are a stable team in the Premier League and they have a good record against many big teams.”
