Alexis Sanchez in dressing room bust up story (redux)

David Hynter of the Guardian reported yesterday that Alexis Sanchez was the eye of a dressing room row. Reportedly, Alexis was called out for his attitude by Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny and video taken during the game showed Koscielny refusing to move after Alexis scored Arsenal’s third goal.

The video was taken by Akhil Vyas, an away supporter who I have personally met and follow on Twitter.

Akhil is an honest Arsenal supporter who was not trying to stir up controversy with his post and in follow up posts says that he often sees Koscielny holding back on celebrations and has for about a year. Akhil is one of the Arsenal supporters who almost always goes to away games and sees what happens off camera.

Arsenal photographer Stuart MacFarlane posted a photo of the two shaking hands after the celebrations.

Whether Koscielny was holding back because he’s mad at Alexis or because he’s got an achilles heel problem (which is well documented) is unknown.

What is incredible, however, is the number of times Alexis Sanchez has been at the heart of a dressing room bust up, story.

In 2015 he was reportedly involved in fisticuffs with Chile teammate Marcelo Diaz. The row was supposedly over Alexis taking a free kick away from Diaz. Alexis publicly played down the magnitude of the brawl, saying that words were simply exchanged.

In September 2016, during a 4-1 win over Hull City in which Alexis scored a brace, Alexis took the penalty away from Cazorla and missed. According to Theo Walcott there were angry words exchanged in the dressing room.

Arsenal won the next match 3-0, over Chelsea. Alexis scored and provided an assist for the third in a Man of the Match performance.

In February 2017, after Alexis scored the only goal in a 5-1 humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich, Alexis did his William Gallas/Thinker impression in the middle of a game. There were reports of a dressing room bust up which were vehemently denied by Arsene Wenger. Alexis was given time off to go answer tax fraud charges in Barcelona and posted something on Instagram saying that “I simply work hard and with dedication to be here today and smile at life.”

Alexis was dropped for the next two matches and was noticeably left on the bench against Liverpool. Arsenal lost 3-1 after a first half onslaught and Wenger was forced to put Alexis on at half time. Alexis provided an assist for the consolation goal.

And earlier this season, after the 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Liverpool the press reported that Petr Cech blasted teammates for their work rate and dedication. There were also reports that Alexis handed in a transfer request. Arsenal did try to sell Alexis but pulled out of the deal when they failed to land Lemar.

Alexis was benched for the next game against Bournemouth and was subbed on in the 75th minute after Arsenal already had the game won 3-0.

And now there were reports of a bust up with teammates after Arsenal’s Thanksgiving weekend win over Burnley. Hynter says teammates told Alexis to give them kisses, not kicks.

Alexis put in a man of the match performance, scoring twice and setting up teammates with excellent passes from all over the pitch.

Whether there is a row between teammates or not, we know for certain that Alexis is often the center of a good old fashioned teammate bust up story. Hopefully, Arsenal will sell him in January and replace him with a player who just plays football. Or not. Maybe we can just have bust ups all season and it will motivate Alexis to put in good performances. Or maybe it doesn’t. He seems to have good ones sometimes and not-so-good ones at other times.

Maybe none of this matters.

Qq

23 comments

  1. Alexis, Ozil and Walcott for Pulisic and Draxler? Not ideal but I would do it.

    Not sure about Lemar for any price north of 50m.

    1. Pulisic is not going anywhere, Reus is still injured, Schürrle is probably leaving and their attack is built around Pulisic. Plus Dortmund’s still swell with the Dembele money, their not letting anybody leave.

  2. I think there is a good chance City will come for Sanchez in Jan now that they have lost both Jesus and KDB to injuries. Can’t wait to see which mediocre player we get to replace him.

  3. Hmmm.$h+tTy just lost Debruyne and Jesus in one day…See if they will keep on keeping on.
    Palace missed penalty late to keep the streak going.

  4. Mike Dean. I hate the man but I think in this case he got it right, though it pains me to say that.

    I thought there was one angle, the one from directly behind the referee, where Chambers does seem to move his arm toward the ball and it is away and out from his body. Having said that it was the slightest movement and it’s hard to say for sure if it was intentional, I don’t think he was expecting Gibbs to play it behind his back to nobody like that (take a bow, Kieran). Also worth noting Chambers got away with a no-call for a similar handball against Palace in the last fixture.

    Overall it was a tired performance but one we should’ve won if not for the controversial intervention of a referee who has done this to Arsenal one too many times.

    The most significant fallout from this though are the injuries to Kolasinac and Koscielny.

    1. Definitely not right. Moving one’s arm a tiny bit towards the ball does not, all by itself, constitute a penalty. His arm was close in by his side, in a not unnatural position, and it is very, very doubtful that he intended to touch the ball with his arm, to the degree that it probably would have been impossible for him to get his arm out of the way if he’d tried.
      Joke decision. But then we hardly deserved the three points (can’t believe Wenger brought Per on rather than move to a back four).

      1. No way was that a penalty but did we really deserve 3 points from this game? No, and that’s what saddens me

    2. Never a penalty, he’s standing right in front of him and takes the ball on the half-volley, there’s virtually no time for Chambers to react to the ball being played.

  5. you knew dean would F it up for the Arsenal.
    How is it that Arsenal only have a crappy record with 2 refs in the entire EPL??

  6. I honestly don’t enjoy Arsenal dropping points, but I do take a guilty pleasure in watching Untold Arsenal go into meltdown when it happens.I know I should be ashamed, but it’s such fun.😇

    1. No offense man, but you obviously have some major issue with Untold Arsenal, to the extent that about half your comments include a dig at them, usually as a sort of sign off at the end. You even managed a dig at them under the post Tim made here about him possibly writing a book.

      Obviously we all like different things and no blog is for everyone, but it does seem like that blog and it’s writers have got under you skin to the extent that about half your comments here mention them.

  7. Regarding Alexis’ ‘thinker’ demonstrations/strops, I does seem like Arsenal fans in general seem far more supportive/understanding of his actions because he ‘cares’ or is ‘a winner’ or is ‘passionate’, or some such thing even though William Gallas still gets roundly condemned for his frustration/strop at Birmingham when we threw away a game that could have seen us go on to win the title that year.

    1. We ‘threw’ it away much like this game. A wrong penalty decision against us. I swear the end to that season was the first time I was forced to consider match fixing. Not just the way we lost the title, but the way ManU won it on the last day.

      1. You’re right Shard. Looking back I probably used that term to draw a more of a parallel between the present team and that one. Using that term isn’t fair to that team and that game in particular.

        I actually agree with you that Arsenal get ‘special’ treatment when it comes to referees in the premier league and the ‘arsenal don’t like it up ’em’ years were horrific in how violence and aggressive behaviour was normalized and encouraged by both the english football media and the referees who were supposed to protect the players on the pitch.

        1. A couple of things here:
          Arsenal used to play the most attractive football in the PL , and the high level of tactical and technical skill they represented ,mostly due to Wenger and the players he was able to bring in ,almost forced their opponents to use illegal and dangerous means to stop them from playing.

          This was aided and abetted by the league, which had decided from the way back to market their product certain way , the way they thought would be appealing to audiences around the world .
          They were correct of course in their assumptions because the PL didn’t become the most popular in the world by being the most technical or tactical around.

          Enter Guardiola and his Man City 3.0 ,and we are seeing the same thing all over again as we did when Arsenal were flying high.
          I watch a lot of football , and when I say a lot , I mean it.
          And the worst four tackles in the last month that I saw anywhere , I saw being made in the PL against City players and strictly by British players too.

          Either of the two tackles on De Bruyne by Alli, or Puncheon could’ve ended his season and although both should’ve been red card offenses, none were.
          Studs up on Sterling by Kane also should’ve resulted in red and not a yellow.
          And the one by New Castle’s Murphy on Gundogan wasn’t even called as being a foul.
          The league is highly complicit in this sort of behavior because they have the power to upgrade charges and ban players appropriately but they don’t.
          This isn’t just an Arsenal thing.
          People used say Arsenal and Wenger were discriminated against because he refused to play the money game.
          Well, no one can accuse City of being shy to spend or to pay , but we are still seeing the same thing all over again.

  8. Never a penalty, doc.
    There might be some arm movement of course because Chambers is in motion but his body position is such ( both knees bent almost at a 90 degree angle , while upper body leaning forwards) that his arms have to be in front and out to the side a bit as a counterweight to his a$$ and to keep his balance.

    Agree about the game though.
    Furthermore, apart from Chelsea, every team looked tired this round and think we are beginning to see some signs of players losing a step or two.

    The PL may cash in on this none stop action but come the CL knockout stages, all English clubs will pay the price , Man City included.

    1. Plus, his arm was away from his body but it was IN FRONT of him. From Gibbs’ point of view, the ball would have struck Chambers’s body anyway. Chambers did not gain an advantage because he wasn’t making his body profile larger relative to the path of the ball. If his arm was out to the side similar to a keeper spreading his arms, I could see giving the penalty but his arm wasn’t to his side. Ugh.

  9. Terrible decision.

    And also, Arsenal were terrible.

    Still, one positive is that we put a bit of distance between us and our immediate rival for 6th place…Burnley.

Comments are closed.

Related articles