Arsenal: Smiling Alexis Sanchez Makes A World Of Difference

Arsenal watched Alexis Sanchez depart for Italy with so many worries and questions, so to see him back in training and smiling makes a huge difference.

Alexis Sanchez’s position at Arsenal isn’t really one he could be all that familiar with. At Udinese, he was an emerging talent. At Barcelona he was a supporting cast. Granted he has become a hero for Chile, but all of that happened while he was at the Emirates, growing into the role of a leader.

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Given that this is his first real leadership role, he probably didn’t know coming into it just how much of an impact he could have on a fan base and on team morale.

But it feels like a massive weight has been lifted seeing him back at Arsenal training full of smiles. Even his latest post on Instagram, although probably nothing more than an impromptu jab at motivation, has to offer hope.

It’s kind of crazy how Alexis has risen to the most iconic man in North London at the moment. He is like the Luke Skywalker to the Gunner’s galaxy. He is the Last Jedi (had to get that in there).

Seeing him dejected and yelling during Bayern Munich was disheartening because we don’t know where his future is going to take him. Then to see him jet off to Italy looking mighty glum felt like he just couldn’t stand this team anymore and needed to go somewhere, anywhere, else.

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But he’s back, he’s all smiles and that should honestly put a lot of our fears to bed. Alexis has asserted how happy he is here over and over. The only times he has ever bashed the club, and it shouldn’t even be considered bashing, is when he questioned their hunger.

This is just more proof that he is happy here. He is hyper-competitive and would have behaved like that for any team in that situation (granted, not many other teams that would offer Alexis a spot would be in that situation). That’s just his nature. He is the complete opposite of Mesut Ozil. He leads with his actions and sometimes those actions can look a bit, well, angry.

We still don’t know what he will decided to do. Recent reports indicate that he wants to see where Arsenal finish the season. But I can’t help but think that him wanting to see where they finish just means Champions League.

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Maybe I’m just grasping at straws here, but seeing the Chilean truly happy again gave me hope that maybe he’s not as gone as we think.