Alexis Sanchez Reportedly Warns Arsene Wenger Not to Give Him Arsenal Rest

During a debut Premier League campaign, some players find it tough to cope with the arduous nature of English football. But not Arsenal’s Chilean sensation Alexis Sanchez, who has reportedly told manager Arsene Wenger that he’d be “upset” if we was left out of the team.

That’s according to David Woods of the Daily Star, who claims that despite playing more minutes than any other Arsenal player this season, Per Mertesacker aside, per WhoScored.com, the forward has asked his manager not to rest him for the "lesser" games.

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Woods outlines the situation between player and manager in his piece:

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The Chile hitman was always unlikely to be rested against champions Manchester City on Sunday. Wenger may have been tempted a week later though for the FA Cup fourth-round trip to Brighton.

But Sanchez has let it be known he will be upset if he is left out for any game and wants to play as much as possible.

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It’s an admirable trait possessed by the former Barcelona man, one he shares with the very best players in the world. Indeed, both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are renowned for their insatiable desire for goals, assists and minutes; it’s clear Sanchez is a footballer who has ambitions to be considered among this elite grouping.

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He might not be in that class yet, but the stats show the Arsenal man is arguably the Premier League’s finest at the moment, per Sky Sports Football:

The defensive side of his game makes him a magnificently multi-faceted player too, as we can see here courtesy of WhoScored.com:

It’s important to look at this issue from a manager’s perspective, however. Arsenal are a team who have been gripped by injury problems this season, but luckily enough for Wenger, Sanchez—who has contributed a sizeable 32 per cent of the Gunners’ Premier League goals this season, per WhoScored.com—has had minimal fitness problems.

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That’s fortunate, but given the unrelentingly intense manner in which the Chilean plays, there is going to come a time when he needs a rest to prevent overexertion. After all, earlier in the season, Wenger admitted that Sanchez was already in the “red zone” in terms of his fitness, per Amy Lawrence of The Guardian.

But former player Nigel Winterburn thinks Wenger cannot afford to take him out of the team at this juncture anyway, per Sky Sports News HQ:

Over the Christmas period, there were a few small signs that Sanchez may have been a little jaded, but he’s come through that spell with supreme distinction. When you have a player who looks to be at peak fitness and is in red-hot form, the best thing to do, from a manager’s perspective, is keep playing him and allow the player to build confidence.

With that in mind and some crucial games on the horizon, it’d be peculiar to see the Chilean taken out of the firing line. But if Arsenal are going to have Sanchez at his sharpest for the entirety of this campaign, the player must accept there are times when he has to relinquish his irrepressible desire to play every minute of every game.