The Chilean attacker has shocked his team-mates by trying hard in training and wanting to win matches!
Various Arsenal players have expressed their astonishment at Alexis Sanchez’s work-rate both on and off the pitch in recent days. Unfortunately for those players, this tells us more about them than it does about their new teammates.
“All the guys have told him to chill out… he doesn’t care, he just wants to play and win. He’s a good leader, and something we haven’t had in the Arsenal team before,” Theo Walcott told the Telegraph, in comments that were mirrored by his team mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain:
“It has been an eye opener for me. There is no rest for him… In training, he wants to win. He has brought that winning mentality to the side and I think it definitely rubs off on a lot of players. He has been a breath of fresh air.”
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“In training, he wants to win.” Imagine that! Should it really be so surprising that a player at a Premier League club wants to win in training? Should the “winning mentality” Sanchez has brought to the side really be such a notable “breath of fresh air”? These quotes are a damning indictment of the mentality that Arsene Wenger has ingrained in his players.
Arsenal have always had the talent to do well and win trophies, and it has always been speculated that the players simply lacked the mental strength and determination that managers like Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson instilled in their Premier League winning sides.
These quotes seem to confirm that particular hypothesis.
One can only hope that Sanchez’s mentality does indeed “rub off” on some of his team mates, rather than their mentality on him. One can only images how the World Cup star feels when he’s being told to “chill out” by Walcott – don’t worry mate, it’s only the Premier League.