Arsene Wenger has revealed that Alexis Sanchez is due to return to training on Monday and will have a full week to prove his fitness ahead of Arsenal’s game with Manchester City on 21 December.
The boss admits the Chile international could be short on fitness having sustained a hamstring injury two weeks ago against Norwich, however, he’s loathed to rule the striker out just yet.
Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa the boss told his weekly press conference: “Alexis is back on Sunday, he trains on Monday morning at 9.30am.
“He is running already… I sent him back to Chile, where he has been running with the physio of the national team, and we will see what kind of state he is in next week.
“He may be a bit short for City, certainly, but with Alexis you never know.”
Arsenal will likely field hat-trick hero Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Joel Campbell tomorrow afternoon with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain an option off the bench. As well as the injured Alexis, the Gunners also have Danny Welbeck to bolster their attacking options in January.
Rechargeable batteries?
Our Alexis is virtually unstoppable — I’ll bet he wants to play on Monday week, too, and he’ll make it hard for Le Prof to leave him out!
This Alexis guy. He is a fitness monster. Who recovers from a hamstring week in what…2 weeks?
I’m pretty sure that he is also ready to play tomorrow, if we were playing city tomorrow alexis would be starting, but nice for wenger to play it safe and gives him 8 days of training and be 100% ready for city then risk it tomorrow, especially now when we have cambell in top form and ox and walcott fit.
I wonder if he’s one of the top 5 players in the world. Messi, Neymar, Suarez, Ronaldo, Sanchez? Maybe Aguero and Lewandoski would argue against that but apart from Barca, Sanchez would probably start for any team in the world when on form
i think you can not say “when on form” when talking about best player… last season, the form ramsey was in, wouldn’t barca/madrid gladly take him that way? but even besides that, abviously he is not at the level of ronaldo, messi, but who is? so i guess we have to put those two out of consideration when talking about best players…. after that, at the elite level, lewandowski, neymar, Alexis are certainly there. Aguero can be said to be there, but he hardly has a season without at least a couple months out.. apart from them, Ozil can considered… Read more »
Neuer regrets being a goalkeeper now.
You forgot Özil
I’m pretty sure that all his fortune cookies simply say: “Congratulations!”
Thank heavens for that!……hopefully he will not experience the arsenal “little set back” in training during the week.
Everyone else takes two months to recoup from hamstring injuries, Alexis takes just 2 weeks. He is a super human.
With Alexis you never know! Awesome.
Genuinely excited about thus arsenal team. I finished reading the unbeaten season book the other day, and the thing that stands out the most is the closeness of the squad. I think these guys play for each other. They may not have the physically imposing threat of the invincible, but they seem close, and will run through brick walls for each other.
Except for Ramsey of course. Plays very irresposibly, always seeling others short because of his indecisiveness or asking too much of them because of his stupid flicks that never come off. Needs to be axed big time. Not worthy of the Arsenal jersey. I know what people here are going to say. “Have you seen how much ground he covers up? Have you seen how commited he is in tackles?” ..Yeah but you play for Arsenal solely on the basis of industry.. Alexis is industrious too but at the saem time he’s got the ability to turn a match on… Read more »
It’s no coincidence that our November dip in form coincided with Ramsey being injured. And on his return we hit form again… He’s one of the first names on the team sheet for me, under appreciated and hugely important.
I wish to strongly disagree with your comment thank you!
have you seen how much ground he covers up? have you seen how commited he is in tackles?
Have you seen how much ground he covers up? Have you seen how commited he is in tackles?
I often come to this site and wonder if people are watching the same match as me…
Have you seen how much ground he covers up? Have you seen how committed he is in tackles?
And I’ll throw in a free “Did you see that run for Ozil’s pass and assist for Giroud?”
That one seemed to have come off alright.
Have you seen how many times Alexis gives the ball away or doesn’t track his man? Loads.
But we don’t care. And I don’t care if Ramsey tries different things either his goals, work rate and endeavour make up for it.
If Alexis is a machine then Ramsey is a frigging animal.
Hehehe, where did you come from my friend? Even one Stevie from the Kopp recognizes his talents! Best midfielder in the EPL he said!
“Not worthy of the Arsenal jersey”!! Time to consider your ways son.
He is not perfect, but please …
Dunno where to start with this nonsense, sorry bruh.
Whats this ground cover-up I kep hearing about? If there’s a cover-up The FA should look into it.
I hope the report that he is “running already” doesn’t mean he is running back from Chile!!
To quote Arsene:
With Alexis, you never know
I was going through comments section of reports of home & away clash with olympiacos…we guys do really hammer LA prof when we lose ..but fail to mention much about him when we win….we are lucky to have Wenger as our coach
Exceptional physical specimen
Who needs him? We were great at Olympiakos. Campbell has his place now (and Gibbs as back-up) so bench at best.
okay. no.
Your joking right?
*You’re
Of course, I thought it was obvious.
Thought so and thanks for not being Pedantic about me saying “your” 🙂
You’re mental.
Not long ago, we used to sweat on the fitness of Fabregas and Van Persie. Now, with half of our starting line up injured, we still are a force to be reckoned with.
Cech, the jeff, Vlad along with cohesion were excellent signings.
What’s important is that Alexis is getting his personalized ‘winter break’. No one has needed one more than him.
I say we poach the physio to take charge of our walking wounded going forward. Imagine having Walcott, Wilshere, Rosiscky, Coquelin etc fit for the whole season! We’d probably have the league sewn up in January.
Roughly translated: “Alexis is definitely starting against Man City. He’ll be on the bench against Villa if he can get there from the airport in time.”
Yipeeeeeeeee!!!
I like this guy. He is a duracell battery ull of energy.
Just read Guardiola has ordered MC to buy him
if he takes over at Maine Road. Lets hope its
just a rumour.
Btw,rf used to buy the nearest rivals key players to hinder him
in the epl. Yorke,Saha,etc,he had wanted Veira but failed.
Hopefully Arsenal will be able to withstand the financial threat
from MC.
Arsenal is Alexis’ toy, don’t fret!
Arsene, we know that you’re loathe to rotate players unless you absolutely have to….and further that you’ve brought back players too early from injury, only to have them re-injure themselves….but in this case don’t do it!!!! Please make sure that Alexis is 100% fit before putting him into the fray.
Yeah cause Wenger plays players based on palm reading when he’s pissed or something.
This guy is NOT human.
Ah, Christmas has come early this year. And to top it off, Bournemouth just beat Man Ure. Excellent day.
If we win the next two games we are 4 points ahead of city and unated come Christmas, and the transfer market. We really need to take this chance as we had couple in November and missed it .
So happy Alexis belongs to Arsenal
Just saying ManU 250m quid spent and still no where. Spending is not everything. The reason our young players are responding and growing organically is partially due to us spending on top players like Ozil and Alexis. But you must also give sufficient room for young players to grow. So its a bit of a balancing act. We don’t have the sort of money to be wantonly wasting money on expensively priced players (say martial for 35m vs our Alexis for 32m) And if you look at some of the successful teams say Klopp’s Dortmund, they did not spend a… Read more »
The other thing is man management I feel a lot of people posting on these sites may not unmderstand the human aspect as well. Sure competition is VERY important but you also have to balance with getting the best out of current players and affording them space/opportunity to grow. Klopp has mentioned he won’t be spending this January so he can see how the current crop can perform. Its important to be able to motivate the players and give theman incentive. Too many people treat the whole thing like a playstation FIFA game where there is no consequence to chopping… Read more »
“Loath to” instead of “loathed to”
Arsene sends him back to Chile to have a rest but instead he’s running with a physio. What a “physical specimen”.