Can Emirates return spark Sanchez revival?

Alexis Sanchez returns to the Emirates with Manchester United today recovered from injury and in happier mood since the departure of Jose Mourinho, but still with an awful lot to do if he wants to persuade critics his career is not in terminal decline.

There’s a certain irony that Sanchez, who is expected to be included in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad after shaking off a hamstring problem, is hoping the FA Cup can turn his fortunes around after a flaccid year at Old Trafford since a swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan last January.

He won the famous trophy twice at Arsenal, after all, but left in search of something more as Arsene Wenger’s reign limped to an end amid criticism that the FA Cup was the ‘only’ thing the Gunners could dream of.

What Sanchez has found since is that the grass is not always greener on the other side. He has gone from being one of the Premier League’s most high-profile strikers in London to one who sits on the bench, often third choice behind Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku, in Manchester.

That wasn’t the plan, of course.

When he signed a four-and-a-half-year deal at Old Trafford the Chilean said he was joining “the biggest club in the world” and looked forward to competing for the trophies he couldn’t win at Arsenal — the Premier League and Champions League.

Marcus Rashford

Instead, United’s turgid and disjointed football under Mourinho, with Sanchez overlooked, injured or played out of position, led to the manager’s dismissal — and only the arrival of Solksjaer has lifted the gloom.

The question now is, with Rashford very much in the driving seat, what part can Sanchez play in the Solskjaer revolution?

A quick look at the stats shows just what a big job the Norwegian has if he wants to turn around the United career of the man who was honoured with the number seven shirt at Old Trafford, such was his previous reputation.

Since arriving in Manchester, Sanchez has scored only four times and played just 22 games — six of them as a substitute — costing his club almost €7m per goal in wages.

This season has been even bleaker. The 30-year-old has scored only once, at an average of only 0.09 a match, and had only seven shots on target; and he has also made just 20.82 passes per match, according to official Premier League statistics.

Compare that to his best season at Arsenal in 2016-17 when he hit 24 goals in 38 appearances, at an average of 0.63 a match — making 43.24 passes a game and hit 49 shots on target.

“My challenge right now is just to be a starter in future, to play and score goals,” Sanchez admitted as he looked forward to six months which could decide his future at Old Trafford.

“But that is not easy because of the great quality of the staff we have here.

“The important thing is that we are now playing well. This season we lost many valuable points at the beginning of the league season, but now we have made a comeback and we are in the race again. We want to do the same in the cup.”

Perhaps a fourth round tie at the Emirates is the right place for Sanchez to announce his own comeback; and reports from United’s Carrington training ground say he has impressed colleagues with his attitude and form in the last fortnight.

But it’s hard to understand how United have failed so dismally, until now, to get the best out of such a dynamic player.

Do we blame Mourinho for using him wrongly?

Or do we blame Sanchez for failing to impose his quality on matches?

Only Romelu Lukaku, Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane scored more goals than Sanchez during the years he played at Arsenal and only Mesut Ozil created more chances for the Gunners in that period, too.

Sanchez racked up 272 of them. So, something has clearly gone spectacularly wrong.

Maybe it started when the striker missed out on a €65m move to Manchester City in the summer of 2017, when Arsenal’s failure to sign Monaco’s Thomas Lemar as a replacement scuppered the deal.

Or perhaps Mourinho, who initially described Sanchez as “one of the best attacking players in the world” who would bring his “ambition, drive and personality” to the club, made a big mistake. Either way, there is work to be done to turn things around.

“We want to finish the season as strongly as we can,” Sanchez said.

Results make a big difference in football and it’s clear we are happier now than before. Our goal is to win games, battle to get into the top four and to see what can happen in the FA Cup and in Europe.

The battle for Sanchez is even tougher if he wants to avoid his worst goalscoring season since scoring only four times as a young striker for Udinese way back in 2009-10.

That was one of only two times in his entire career

that he failed to reach double figures for a campaign — but to hit another nine before May is a significant challenge in 2019 given the competition for places at United.

Could the Emirates be the place to turn it all around? That must be the hope because the alternative is a painful homecoming for a player who knows he cannot expect a hero’s welcome and who has so much to prove.