Arsenal: Huge Alexis Sanchez decision makes it official

Arsenal has officially laid down the law in regards to Alexis Sanchez. He’s not leaving. And this is a reminder of the changing of the times.

Arsenal and Alexis Sanchez were such a happy couple not all that long ago, but things started getting bad (or not as good, rather) somewhere along the line to cause some degree of tension between the two parties. The whole not winning the title thing didn’t really help.

And so that has been the tune of this summer. Will he stay or will he go? No one knows. Even with Arsene Wenger adamantly stating that he will stay, all anyone has to do is dig up old quotes about how the likes of Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie were staying and you can push any reassurances aside.

But not really. Because this time it is different and Wenger is making sure that we know it is different. First he highlighted how there is no financial constraints on the club anymore. No debts incurred from stadiums to pay off.

Next up is what he said most recently regarding his own personal decision not to sell the Chilean, which goes above and beyond just saying “he isn’t leaving.”

Here is what he had to say when asked if the board supported his decision, as reported by Fox Sports:

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"“Yes, the board supports me to make the decisions on a technical front. I can tell you is that he is focused, and my decision is clear: he will stay and he will respect that. It is as simple as that.”"

Meaning that Wenger has all the authority in the world to say that Alexis isn’t leaving because if Wenger says he isn’t leaving, then guess what? He isn’t leaving.

We can infer from this that selling the other stars back when the Emirates had to be paid off may not have been completely his decision. There was always a bit of a question here over how much of a part Wenger had to play with those sales and with Wenger standing firm and asserting that this was his decision to make, we can legitimately erase all doubt.

Meaning that the Chilean will be here all season, no questions asked. And if that means he leaves on a free next year, then what can be done? Seeing him leave on a free should actually be a nice change of pace, since clearly we weren’t in this for the money.

Next: Arsenal's Predicted FIFA 18 Player Ratings

We were in this to win and Alexis gave us the best chance for that. Even if for only one more year.

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