Arsene Wenger has admitted it’s difficult to tell Alexis Sanchez he can’t play, even when the Chilean is genuinely injured.
The former Barcelona man has a tight hamstring which the Arsenal manager is reluctant to risk in tomorrow’s derby, but the player is still hopeful of being involved.
Speaking at his press conference today, Wenger said, “He wants to play, he’s so keen!
“He wants to play of course. He’s very keen and thinks he can even defy the medical people.”
Pressed on his participation tomorrow, the boss said, “I don’t know yet. I need medical advice on that and need as well to see what he can do in training.”
Meanwhile, Arseblog News has uncovered some exclusive training ground footage of Alexis shaking off injury after injury:
Great to have some proper atttitude and strength, got to rub off.
Possibly a little too much information
Possibly?
Hopefully he rubs of on Coq
Stick him on the bench, if we’re losing, play him, if we’re not, don’t risk it
I wonder if Wenger molly coddles players a little – back in the day George Graham could get through a 70 game season with 16 players and thats when football was half street fighting / half hate. Grahams men would train drunk on pitches that looked like a sp*rs septic tank after lasagne night then they would gamble and drink wil 4 am before crashing their cars on the way home after stopping for a kebab. How is modern sports science developing such brittle players, tony adams would probably see a tight hamstring as a reason to get the drinks… Read more »
And they’d also play like they were drunk and had stayed up until 4AM the day before. Like everyone else in the league.
Those days the league was so uncompetitive you could get away with that. Then Wenger showed up and said no more staying up all night drinking every night and the league changed.
perfect opportunity to play rosicky again – still can’t believe he went back to the bench after that f.a. cup game.
I love this man so much <3
Man I really want him to play! But at the same time I don’t want him to get even more injured and be out for the rest of the season :/
Let’s save him for a top club like Leicester, rather than the fourth best team in North London.
Fifth best actually.
After Arsenal, Arsenal Ladies, Arsenal U-21 and Arsenal U-18.
what a travesty! you missed out the Arsenal reserves.
Yas, risk him tomorrow to agrivate his injury and them to be out for 6 weekes. What a idiotic comment.
You’re right about the idiotic comment- except it’s yours.
West Ham, Leyton Orient, Manchester Utd Ex-Supporters FC, Fulham, Brentford.
Not sure they’re even the 10th best London club…
This sounds risky, as big a game that it is I would prefer he sits it out and does not need 4-6 weeks off at a key point in the season.
Our “medical” people need to be wise here!
I agree but at the same time our medical team are hopeless at predicting injury lay-offs.
Putting aside the all too common 2-3 week limbo our players find themselves in, Welbeck was only ‘a doubt’ for Southampton on 1st Jan and it’s only now 5 weeks later he’s back in the squad. Is this because their initial assessment was poor or have they been over cautious? Who knows but I trust Alexis to know his body better than they do at this point.
Hoe do we even know if he bleeds? The bloke is a machine!!
How now brown cow
He’s a cybernentic organsim with living tissue. His CPU is a neuronet processor; a learning computer.
Wenger: “You’re hit! You’re bleeding?”
Alexis: “I ain’t got time to bleed”
Wenger: “You’re hit! You’re bleeding man”
Alexis: “I ain’t got time to bleed”
If he is fit enough to be on the bench it would be good. It would give us the option of either to bring him on to help win the game or add a gloss to the scoreline.
It really annoys me that we can´t unleash Alexis on those dirty scums tomorrow.
I wont be surprised if he’s included tomorrow. Wenger has done this alot. How many times haven’t Henry and Fabregas been doubtful before the big games, but played anyway. Not sure if it’s mind games or Wenger taking risks tho.
I think it’s a combination. He definitely takes risks with certain players. Henry, especially, played many, many games with small injuries. Then again, it’s hard to keep the best player in the world on the bench, especially when he was so keen to play every second of every match.
What a lad Alexis. Hopefully Coquelin can play as a CB if needed so we can have a ‘Coqsacker’ partnership.
Or we could sign Lars or Sven Bender.
Then it’d be the Coq-Bender partnership…
Thankfully Nicky Butt has retired
I don’t share your blind enthusiasm guys. A pro listens to the pros and this guy has to learn to be patient and to not consider his own a$$ but the good of the team. And the good of the team is his rest and his respect to the medical staff.
Alexis runs the club you knobhead, if he wants to play even in a wheelchair then he shall do so!
You, Coq-head, just made my day! COYG!
Those midieval training methods are why we always get injuries…
Was his “injury” Wenger trolling Tott*nh*m?
It’s all well he is keen to play, I think we are all aware of his desire to play and contribute, his desire is unquestionable, but, if his injury is genuine then rest him and that’s the end of it. As a manager I would only risk him if it was a CL final, then give him some painkillers and play him. Right?
This guy is unbelievable.
This is one of those mind games, as Arsene and Arsenal to gauge the reactions of the other”team”, he is fine an is able to play as clearly seen in twitter message of the Aston Villa game, that he’s gutted to miss out.
Conversely, the Media reports of his dissatisfaction in the Arsenal camp is rubbish as they have nothing negative about Arsenal to report but the underlining problem is that so many of us can’t read in between the line as we as well stir the pot
Hi attitude is amazing, but I’d rather not risk him. Losing tomorrow would be bad. Losing tomorrow while aggravating Alexis’ injury would be catastrophic.
What an attitude to approach the game. Afraid of loosing it before it’s even kicked off. Through it can go either a, where is enthusiasm
Catastrohpe may be overplaying it a little, but if there’s any doubt in their minds, he shouldn’t play; pretty sure he’ll be on the bench though,
The mans a beast and I fear for the spuds if he plays tomorrow. He will mash them
If he wants to play, he has to show it in training that he can play and help the team i would play him.
please Mr. Wenger if he is not fit don’t risk him.We have more than enough attacking covers for him.But I commend his attitude and hunger to take us to greater heights
Ox: (to Sanchez) You’re bleeding man. You’ve been tackled studs up.
Sanchez: I ain’t got time to bleed
Ox: Oh…okay.
Heh!
Those saying he should play will be the first to shout “Wenger out” if he breaks down.
They’ll also be only too happy to blame the medical staff if he plays against their advice.
There’s a bigger picture here. An Alexis fully fit and able from – say Crystal Palace until the end of the season and we’re guaranteed to have a brilliant campaign. A setback or two and it’ll be considerably more difficult.
Besides, we’re more than capable of seeing off Sp*rs with an eleven strengthened by Welbeck tomorrow. Saying that we can’t is tantamount to heresy.
I reckon Wenger will soon get a call from alexis:
“Le boss, I have a particular set of skills…
” if I don’t play, I will find you and I will kill yo.. Kill your favourite flower.”
The thing with a hamstring strain is that it can feel fine in training even going full speed, feel fine during warmups before the match, but as soon as the match starts and the intensity really picks up it is a totally different level. How often have we all seen athletes in various sports be cleared to play and then get reinjured early in the match as there really is no way to replicate the speed/intensity of a live match in training (esp a derby). We have too much to play for the rest of the season to risk him… Read more »
This is why I don’t understand why Jack Wilshere smokes. How could you get addicted to cigarettes when you can be addicted to football instead?
he was holding a sheesha pipe, not a cigarette. Tons of “non-smokers” go to hookah bars and smoke sheesha
Such is the ease of this fixture the FA should designate the two games per season as charity games, where Arsenal invite underprivileged kids to play against a “Premier League” team. AFC would still be guaranteed 6 pts, the kids get to live their dream of playing football for the biggest club in the world and lots of money is made for charity. Win,win,win.
Was that norman (“bites yer legs” off) hunter? V.funny.
I do hope Blogs doesn’t increase adverts on the site to pay for the next level CGI of Alexis’ wound!
Budget got smashed……….. 😉
I dont think Sanchez is the type of player you would want to risk when he has a tight hamstring,he runs for 90mins non stop…he would surely tear his hamstring if it is tight.the guy is a beast and doesnt know wen to hold back.
Headline reminded me instantly of this – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEjA14Svn5s&t=2m43s
Rest up Alexis, Theo got this one. 2 – 0 anyone?
Just sit him on the bench – that’s enough to scare the spuds shitless!
I hate Sp*rs
People on here are always complaining about Arsenal’s injury record, but Alexis gets a tight hamstring and everybody is calling it “mind games” and urging Wenger to play him because “he’s tough” and “its Sp*rs” ?? That’s a dangerous gamble to take. Tight Hamstring – 2-3 weeks Torn Hamstring – 6-8 weeks Tight Hamstring turned into a shredded Hamstring – 6 months You know this is what happens at Arsenal When they say he is doubtful it means they can’t tell if he has fully recovered or not yet. We’d be fools to play him. Especially with our record with… Read more »
We have to think of the bigger picture for the next few months re ‘risking’ him today; but with 7 subs on the bench, if it’s borderline, it must be worth naming him as a sub & hopefully not needing him!!