Alexis Sanchez endured a frustrating debut as captain of Chile as the reigning Copa America champions were held to a goalless draw with Boliva in Santiago.
La Roja have now gone three games without a win on home soil and currently sit 7th in the table, outside the qualification places for the 2018 World Cup.
Demanding more from his team, who have won consecutive Copa America championships, Alexis told El Grafico:
“I don’t like to lose. I always want to win, even more in the national team. We are the two-time champions, but that’s already gone. We must raise our heads.
“It’s not enough to play a hundred percent. After being champions, teams look at you with different eyes. We can’t settle and play as before, we should strive forward.”
Alexis also outlined his personal ambitions at international level as he closes in on being his country’s all-time record goalscorer.
The Arsenal man is currently second in the rankings with 34 goals, the same as Ivan Zamorano, just three behind the legendary Marcelo Salas.
“I want to be the best in the world, I can’t settle for less, I want to win everything with the team, to beat [the goal records of] Salas and Zamorano and [appearance record of] Claudio Bravo.”
Obviously feeling pretty good in himself, he went on, “I have reached a level where I can compete with great players.
“I do not feel inferior to anybody. I liken [my qualities] to Messi and Ronaldo. I have the same abilities as them.”
“I’ve had the motivation to be the best since childhood and I’ve managed to play in the best teams, but at Barcelona I wasn’t feeling the same motivation so I found a new place to continue.”
You have to admire that ambition, it’s exactly what you want to hear from your best players. That said, with that attitude he could be quite a handful when it comes to contract negotiations at Arsenal. Luckily, Dick knows how to deal with slippery characters.
Lord Bendtner of Nottingham disagrees
To be fair, Lord Bendtner did say on the record he will be the greatest striker that ever lived
Find that actual quote for us. He did say at one point that he expected to be one of the top strikers in the world in 5 years’ time. But not TGSTEL, I believe that was an Arseblog distortion for humorous purposes.
Killjoy
Appreciate this and happy to see (hear?) more of it from the players. A true winning mentality (“not me, not us, not today”) needs to develop throughout the squad. 3 points at all costs, every week and sometimes even at the expense of the footballing philosophy.
It’s nice to hear but a bit ambitious to put it mildly. He is nowhere near Messi or Ronaldo. Messi and Ronaldo are indescribable… 60 goals plus a season is unheard of for others. For them it is the norm. Sanchez has not even got 30goals in a single season.
That’s the abmition. That’s why we love our Alexis
Alexis for balon d’or 2017
He’ll need to win the league and possibly the champions league. As ambitious as he is and as optimistic as I am – that’s just not happening at Arsenal. What are the odds for that? 5000 to 1???
Never tell me the odds!
As he’s at Nottingham Forest, should we be calling him The Sheriff now? Or would that demotion demean TGSTEL?!
The Greatest Sheriff That Ever Lived !
I’d happily shoot that sheriff
The Greatest Sheriff That Ever lived.
More like Knobgoblin Hood.
More like Knobin Hood.
He’d rather be knobbing taxis than peasants
With regards to Sir Alexislot, my Dennis I love this guy’s attitude. Although I do fear for the contract situation and I don’t think he’ll sign unless we prove we can win, or at least significantly challenge for the top prizes. If not I fear he will leave. Dennis forbid, but if he left to a Prem rival (how many clubs will pay his wages?), it would hurt like hell, perhaps worse than the Dutch Skunk. Imagine thinking of him as The Dirty Sanchez – ugh!
We absolutely must keep him at Arsenal and convince him to sign a new contract. Signing Ozil and Sanchez were statements of intent. If we let one of them go, the entire perception of the club will change.
It matters how good your players, but it also matters even more to be imposing as a football team, a football team that means business.
Can’t wait to see Mustafi and Lucas link up with Wizard of Oz and Sanchez this weekend. These international breaks I tell you…
Tom Gun take that back!
My apologies Nigerian Rex. I expressed my fear with a touch of humour. I take it back wholeheartedly!
Most of the worlds best athletes have a certain level of arrogance and self belief, I like this in Alexis. Some athletes though go overboard and become complete twats.. Ronaldo for example!
Exactly what he should be saying – much better to be brimming with self-confidence than wishing you were up there with someone else.
You already achieved what you can with Chile,If you can score 30 goals for us, the EPL will be ours
He’s been brought up at Barcelona where if you give away possession you get removed from the training sessions.
A ruthless institution, but it means you have to perform to your very best if you want to make it!
Bag a hat-trick for us on Saturday, Sanchez!
I love Alexis. However it is an interesting stat that last Friday vs Uruguay he is shown as having lost possession 24 times. That’s just less than once every 4 minutes. I think that’s the reason he’s not at Barcelona rather than any stuff about motivation.
I do rate him but he doesn’t look like he was brought up at Barcelona. He give the ball away ALL the time. It’s very frustrating. Even when he attempts simple stuff. Players have different qualities but he is chalk and cheese on possession vs. the likes of Cazorla and Ozil who really take care in possession. To me they are more obvious Barcelona players……
He wasn’t brought up at Barcelona he learnt to play in tocopilla on the streets and transferred to Barca at the age of 24, played for 3 seasons there before arsenal.
Flamini confirmed at Crystal Palace. Good for him.
I’d say the same thing if I had his abs.
Chile started this game like a house on fire. Some of the passes from deep midfield were sensational and their football was even more direct than it was under their old coach Sampaoli. It was similar to the tempo we had during that spell last season when Alexis destroyed United. El Capitan Alexis definitely has unfinished business after last injury struggles. He probably knows his heroics for Chile have cost him and Arsenal so I’m not worried in the least about his contract talks. He’ll keep pushing himself to the max for us and all his Arsenal team-mates have to… Read more »
Another 25 goal season please. Otherwise it’s off to bournmouth on loan to prove you still have class.
more fitness than class to be honest
A question, rather than suggestion: Alexis for arsenal captain?
Shows his hunger as always but the message is clear too. “I deserve to win trophies like them. If I don’t this year. I am outta hear.”
So I really hope this is a successful season. Not just for him. But for us.
While I like his overall attitude and confidence, comparing himself to Messi indicates that he believes he’s already at that level. He’s not. If he’s ever to reach that level, he has to realize there’s a gap, analyze the gap, and then figure out how to cross it (hard work being only one of the ingredients). He won’t be doing any of that if he thinks he’s already on other side of the gap.
Key word, “abilities”. Mentions his qualities, not performance level. Sure he knows there’s a performance gap.
He works bloody hard, love his ambition.
You have to admire his ambition. But that ambition is why he probably won’t be at Arsenal much longer.
I think Alexis is basically at that level. I don’t consider this arrogance.
Forget losing posession, he tries something crazy almost every single time he has the ball, of course he is going to lose posession way more than conservative players. But he makes things happen. Last game, all three goals were because of him. Even a lot of goals he doesn’t get an assist for were created by him.
He’s definitely a top 3 or top 5 player in the world.
I don’t agree. he gives the ball away a lot attempting simple stuff. Just watch him. He is careless not just ambitious.
I know that too. But his overall effectiveness and impact on the game is usually huge. And the types of things he is capable of are crazy.
Those little things are easy to get rid of, compared to improving on skill and technique.
He also runs all over the place and is super aggressive, and those things impact the game in a big way too.
He’s different from some of the top attacking players in the world, but still at their level of influence on a game.
He is definitely a top 2 player in the arsenal squad
Hopefully, he is back in London from that long trip and preparing to unleash all of that messi-like qualities on Southampton.
As long as he’s given that free role all over the pitch he can be our Messi or Ronaldo.
You mean Rooney?
For 300k a week we could have one of our very own
‘Luckily, Dick knows how to deal with slippery characters’ – what an erotic innuendo 🙂
I expect we should move him back to the left where he does most damage (or even right where he looked even more effective inverted) Similarly, we now have back up with Perez as well should Alexis get knackered. Or we can play Perez up top as an alternate to Giroud. Or we can play both Alexis and Perez on flanks too. Or Perez or Alexis tucked in closer to Giroud. Or Granit holding solitary in a diamond. Wenger has not bought aimlessly. There is a definite plan to provide options for the team and an upgrade in capability. Its… Read more »
Unbelievable drive and energy, But could still improve his possession on the ball. Imo the primary reason why he is not at Barcelona has nothing to do with lack of motivation but everything to do with that Alexis can be abit wild and careless in possession at times which really does not suit the extreme possession based playstyle of Barcelona. Which was good news for us because even though he can be wild and reckless, his risktaking ultimately gives us alot more than it takes away. He gives us abit of an unpredictable factor that is impossible to plan for.… Read more »
To all the people going after him for the comparison, a top 10-20 player out of literally a couple million competitive footballers the world over saying that he is top 5 (I think Suarez and possibly Neymar are also in the same class as Messi and Ronaldo at the moment) isn’t that huge a stretch. I like a small dose of arrogance: acting like you’re just a little better than you are makes you work harder to achieve that standard. It’s when people act like they are loads better than they are (*cough cough* NB52 *cough cough*) that I start… Read more »
He is dynamic, explosive in the way he sees and play his game, but in certain time of the match, especially with the way we supposed to play, perhaps he can be a bit more relax and smooth as well, which unfortunately he’s not good at (yet).That is why Ozil is perhaps the best player in term of style to complement Alexis.
God i love Alexis. He stands for everything i love about football.