Alexis Sanchez says he’s revelling in the competitiveness of the Premier League and believes Arsenal’s two recent victories in Manchester are the blueprint for future success.
The summer signing, who has 19 goals from 37 starts this season, also insists he’ll keep on improving as he continues to learn about English football in the company of his teammates.
Reflecting on his first eight months at the Emirates the Chile international told the Evening Standard:
“I am well adapted to the country and the league. I must keep on learning, though. I want to expand my knowledge of English football in general and Arsenal and my team-mates in particular, but overall I love this league.
“At the end of the day, football was invented in this country, right? I live where football was invented. That makes me really happy.
“Ever since I started watching Premier League I found English football very appealing. I hope to keep on learning from my team-mates and keep on improving day after day. That’s what I am here for.”
Having featured in both the 2-0 win at Manchester City and Monday night’s 2-1 FA Cup quarter-final success at Old Trafford, Sanchez feels Arsenal are demonstrating the right qualities to push the best teams for silverware.
“It was a very physically demanding game, a box to box one,” the 26-year-old said of the win over Manchester United.
“I got back home both happy and exhausted. The team played the game with a great attitude and with a genuine spirit to win it from the very first minute. We never put our head down against a top club like Manchester United. That attitude gave us the victory.
“We also played like that away at Manchester City. We showed a great winning mentality that day. If we add that to the very talented squad we have we will be able to beat anyone.
“The Champions League race is all down to us. If we want to stay in the top four or climb some places on the table we must maintain the winning mentality. I always say that mentality is a crucial aspect in a football environment. If a footballer goes on the pitch with the right mentality he will perform well.”
Things Alexis does well…
He brings out the best in his teammates…
3 – All three Kieran Gibbs assists in the Premier League this season have been for Alexis Sanchez. Combo.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 4, 2015
He scores and assists…
20 – Alexis Sanchez has been involved in 20 PL goals this season. Only Sergio Aguero (23) has been involved in more. Catalyst. — OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 4, 2015
He fights for the ball…
457 – Alexis Sanchez has contested more 50/50 duels than any other player in the Premier League this season. Dynamo.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 11, 2015
He looks sexy wiping soup from his chin (courtesy of GQ Style).
this guy is a beast!
He really is unbelievable stamina wise. And how many times have we heard from foreign imports, our own included, that they struggle in the second half of the season due to the lack of a winter break. Sanchez’s goals may have dried up a little but he’s still been giving it the beans week in week out, winter break or not.
Alexis Sanchez BABY!!!
Sexy Beast, he is!!!!
This beast is a guy ?
Fucking love that bloke.
He teaches his fellow players how to run your hole off to get the ball.
Love his influence this year.
You really can see the difference he has made, such an infectious attitude that has spread throughout the squad, love when you see our little midget midfielders battling away and winning those battles time and time again
It’s definitely had an affect on Santi and Özil.
On another subject, wtf is up with our meagre allocation for the FA Cup semi? 32,000 vs 43,000 against Wigan last year??? Do Bradford or Reading have that many more fans than Wigan?
Perhaps Jose was right about the campaign but wrong about which club it’s being carried out against… or perhaps Jose’s just a cunt, but anyhow.
More tickets, FA, please.
Perhaps????!!! 😉
Last year Wigan gave up part of their fair allocation because they knew they couldn’t sell that many tickets. This year our opponent is unknown, so they cannot tell the FA how many tickets they’re willing to give up.
Also, Wigan, Bradford and Reading all have pretty much the same size stadium at about 25000, and Bradford sold out all of it in their game against Sunderland. So it’s not inconceivable they they’d like to try to sell a full 32000 tickets.
It’s also worth noting that Wigan never seem to sell out their stadium – their highest attendance in all of last season was 19000, so they too tried to sell more FA semi tickets than they ever sold in their home ground.
whilst true, last year both the lower league northern clubs (ie sheff utd in the game against Hull) saw a low take up because a good number of people couldn’t afford the semi final *and* final, so a few thousand wigan fans made a bet that they’d go to the final if they made it through the semi. Sound enough logic and potentially something that’ll affect Bradford this year. Reading on the other hand is full of “Chelsea” fans who will doubtless switch loyalties for the day if they beat the Bantams. Footballistically I’d prefer Reading; in terms of getting… Read more »
i cant believe bradford fans will pass on the semi in the hope of a final. It’ll be interesting to see how many we end up with but i would expect either team to take up most of their allocation as neither has been to an fa cup semi-final in a very long time.
#The Red Beast of London
I think I’m in love.
Love the quotes above. And his attitude, has to rub off on the rest.
Why not win the league next season? We are on the up, have a lot of strength in each position, increasing confidence, better teamwork and understanding and we get on average 11 extra points in non-tournament seasons (per the Footballistically podcast).
He doesn’t say it, but he loves us. (Alexis)
He and Ozil will have their first preseason with their teammates this summer and all will find the mechanism to dominate next year premier league. (Its true, he’s been with us for two years and never had a preseason Ozil)
We have handsome players..Lavin Design GQStyle
Ramsey Arteta Bellerin Theo Ox and even Martinez are overlooked for the magazine spread
Alexis won’t be having much of a preseason. Isn’t the Copa America this summer?
Nah mate. Sanchez is gonna be playing in the Copa America in the summer. Then in 2016 we’ll have the Euros. So much for pre-season.
and Gabriel …
He comes across as a football junkie. The guy that would rather stay home and watch football match after football match rather than go to a night club. He has been a breath of fresh air
Really liked what you said.
But there is nothing wrong if he goes to a club or smokes some cigarettes
That’s him wiping his lips after kissing man utd good bye.
I’m pretty certain he’s wiping a dribble of blood off his chin after having another full back for breakfast!
The guy will be a great manager!
“At the end of the day, football was invented in this country, right? I live where football was invented. That makes me really happy.”
What. A. Fucking. LEGEND.
Can only see him improving, and improving those playing with him.
Bargain of the season, props to AW, not bad for a “senile has been” 😉
Let’s just hope he stays. If we don’t start competing for major honours from next season on, I imagine he’ll move on, and fair enough too; a player like him deserves better trophies than the FA Cup in his cabinet.
How about La Liga? He’s got that already. He’s here to play week in week out for one of the top teams in the best league in the world. He’s not going to go back to Spain, or to an even more uneven league by joining Bayern. We have the third best squad in the league, and the gap to the top is getting smaller, so there’s nowhere near as much to gain by switching to one of our rivals as there was 5 years ago. I reckon he’s here to stay and help us fight for the two toughest… Read more »
His workrate is legendary!!
We can see everyone is learning it from him.
I would be very happy to see him learn how to release the ball at the right time,at the right pace like the guy..You know who;)
I love this guy! Puts in a shift and does it classily.
He has the best haircut
The next arsenal statue will be him!
What a hunk. It pains me to hear Alexis speaking about “the hunt for Champions League places” when we’re only in March. I’m sure that’s not what he had in mind when he decided to join us.
I can’t wait to see Alexis nutmegging former teammate Alex Song before slotting home a goal tomorrow.
Followed by a hat trick in the Champions League a few days later at Monaco.
I’m pretty certain that when he joined he was realistic enough to appreciate a serious hunt to finish No1 was a year or 2 away.
But he also said this: “If we want to stay in the top four or climb some placeS on the table”
Places! Go for it 🙂
The hat trick at Monaco will be from Giroud.
First Ozil and then Alexis. Maybe one or two “marquee” signings this year as well. Mix it with the abundance of home grown talent and we arrive at point where we become the formidable Arsenal of the early 2000s again. And to be fair, it certainly looks like a team that can do wonders. Only the psychological factors seem to be holding us back. It’s about time we fixed that,won the league and posed some serious CL threat.
Talking about Champions League. This week has been a week of going to the house of your former club and rain on their parade. Welbeck on Utd (Mon), Huntelaar (Tue) on Madrid, Luiz on Chelsea (Wed). Wenger should cap it next week by doing the same on Monaco and get us to UCL Q/F. Raining on parade is only allowed during weekdays and not weekends, so Song cannot do same to us.
Song doesn’t have the ability to do any harm to us. Coquelin will rule midfield.
When Van pursestrings left us like a cunt people looked at us and thought, yea good team but…
now we have Alexis and Ozil, but mainly Alexis people are genuinely scared again we have our danger man 🙂 Not to take anything away from the rest of our very good squad but the impact this man has had is unreal.
Sign a DM like lars bender to compete with the coq and i honestly dont know where else to buy for the squad, and that is excellent.
Gibbs had an assist for giroud in the win away at QPR
Alexis, please win the game in Monaco for us. Yes, you can !
I believe he will have a storming 2nd season.Jst hope that he’s not the type of player like Fabrigas
who always has a storming 1st half of a season followed by an underwhelming 2nd.Though I’m amazed by his sheer workload.The most hardworking in our team with or without a goal or an assist.