Arsenal: Alexis Sanchez needs to prove himself all over again

Arsenal’s tremulous situation with Alexis Sanchez has led to the Chilean being in a unique situation of needing to prove himself like never before.

Arsenal’s situation with Alexis Sanchez isn’t getting any easier, even with the emerging (and perhaps unfounded) belief that he will sign a new deal before Christmas. And that being the case, it’s time for the Chilean to prove himself all over again, although probably in a way that he has never proved himself before.

He doesn’t need to prove himself as a player, obviously. That’s been done time and again. Nor does he need to prove himself as a good person. The dude used to dress up as Santa Clause for his hometown’s Christmas parade.

He needs to prove himself as a team player, and not just for the club, but for the supporters. Because if there is one party here that is innocent of whatever trumped up grievances Alexis might have with the club, it’s the supporters, who were just tickled when he joined the club.

And were equally tickled every single time he took the pitch.

With his sickness and his questionable comments, supporters are rightly getting rubbed the wrong way. Get pissed at the club if you want (though he really can’t be all that mad) but the supporters have loved and supported him and he has given them nothing this off season to abate their fears. Not even a simple gesture like thanking them.

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Nothing. It’s been completely silent on his end in regards to positive outlook. All we hear is “I’m an Arsenal player now,” with no assurance over where he will be or wants to be.

I have stood up for his ambiguity to a certain extent, because unlike people like Hector Bellerin, he hasn’t outright stated that he wants to leave. But he hasn’t exactly calmed our nerves at all or, again, offered the supporters anything.

I want to see what he does when he returns to the team. I want to see how he acts on the pitch. Because while it’s said that it ‘won’t affect his play’ because he doesn’t have an off switch, I also thought he’d never willingly miss time because he was sick.

Alexis needs to prove that he can still go about business without being a sulking, tantrum-throwing distraction.

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I’d like to believe that won’t be a problem, but the very fact that I have to consider it means we kind of need to see it.

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