Alexis Sanchez ‘not a special case’

Arsene Wenger insists there is no bespoke treatment for Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal as the Chilean settles into his role as the club’s main striker.

The 27-year-old has been operating centrally for the Gunners for much of the current campaign having previously been seen by Wenger as more of a wide player. Sanchez has scored six goals so far and has looked more and more comfortable in the role.

But he has been substituted in two of Arsenal’s last three games and on both occasions, against Swansea and Ludogorets, the former Barcelona forward has looked less than impressed.

But Wenger says Sanchez is just as likely to be rested or replaced as any other member of his squad as he looks to keep all of his players fresh.

“They all recognise it after the game but during the game they want to stay on the pitch,” he said when asked about Sanchez’s reaction to being substituted.

“I have played football - I was tired and I wanted to stay on the pitch - because you want to play. There is a difference between acknowledging it and wanting to stay on the pitch. You want to play even when you are tired. For me, he is not a special case. He is a player like everybody else. When I decide to take him off, I take him off.

“There is no special case. He has his own character but he is not treated differently from everybody else.”

Wenger, who has lost fellow striker Lucas Perez for up to two months with an ankle injury in Tuesday’s EFL Cup win over Reading, believes Sanchez’s long-term position is central.

“I see him there because he is the kind of guy, he is provocative. He has a short technique and can always create something. He has a good mixture between scoring and giving the final ball. In my taste, he still comes too much to the ball, because Alexis Sanchez likes to have the ball. But that’s why when we have Theo Walcott - it balances well, because when he comes, Walcott goes. This is a good mixture, a good working unit.

“I had other players, I had Welbeck, I had Giroud, who in my opinion are more central players than Alexis who came here as a winger and he wanted always to play there.

“When I tried him there a few times, I remember I tried him at Aston Villa and I took him off at half-time. Or at Everton, I put Giroud on when we were 2-0 down in the first game of the season. Maybe I made up my mind he is more of a winger. But I didn’t give up and I think he is happy there.”

Alexis is expected to start up front at the Stadium of Light today. Granit Xhaka is still serving a ban and Arsenal could also be without Walcott and Nacho Monreal as the pair require late tests. Santi Cazorla is also likely to be missing once more but Aaron Ramsey should be involved for the first time since injuring his hamstring on the opening weekend of the season.

Meanwhile, Sunderland boss David Moyes is confident he still has the support of owner Ellis Short despite a desperately difficult start to his reign on Wearside.

Moyes freely admits his task is a tough one, and that it is perhaps tougher now than it was the day he accepted Short’s offer of employment.

He said: “It can be different, but I think that happens at clubs. Everywhere you go in, you know sometimes things aren’t always the way you might have thought it to be.

“But the one thing that hasn’t changed is we go away to every ground and fill it with our own supporters. We have got nearly 45,000 at the game tomorrow, so the people of Sunderland continue to support their team whether it be home or away, and that tells you about the size of the club.

“It tells you about the club’s history, it tells you a lot about the club and the people. No matter what situation they are in, they follow their team.”