Alexis Sanchez admits he 'expected to win titles' as he mulls Arsenal future

1/27
James Benge7 May 2017

Alexis Sanchez has admitted to being frustrated over recent months as he weighs up whether to extend his Arsenal contract in the summer.

Though the 28-year-old has enjoyed his best season at Arsenal in his third term at the club it has not been enough to drag Arsene Wenger’s side into the title race, with the Gunners lying 21 points behind leaders Chelsea in sixth place.

Off the field the season has been dominated by questions over the future of leading men Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Wenger. Whilst the manager’s deal expires at the end of the season the two star players are out of contract in the summer of 2018, meaning Arsenal would have to sell them this summer for any hope of a significant return.

Fearful of Sanchez moving to a Premier League rival Arsenal have offered the Chilean £300,000-a-week, the competition’s biggest wage packet, to sign a new deal but they should not expect a response until the end of the season.

“What I want to do now is to finish the season well, try to qualify for the Champions League, win the FA Cup and then I'll sit down with the club to decide what I'm going to do,” Sanchez told Sky Sports.

“We've said that the two of us will sit down together to discuss the topic in terms of what will happen and what we're going to do, what's best for the club, what's best for me, what's best for him.

“We'll speak once the season is over because if I speak now, that would take my focus away from what I want, which is qualifying for the Champions League and winning the FA Cup.”

Despite an exceptional season in which he has scored 24 goals and provided 18 assists in all competitions Sanchez has cut a frustrated figure on several occasions.

Most notably he fumed whilst Arsenal celebrated a comeback from three goals down to earn a point at Bournemouth but that has hardly been an isolated incident.

In Pictures | Arsenal training session | 06/05/2017

1/20

“Sometimes I am frustrated, sometimes I'm not,” Sanchez said. “There have been games when we've been in a position to kick on and win, but we've made a small mistake and found ourselves 2-0 down.

“Sometimes that gets to me because winning those points is so important if you want to win the Premier League.”

Sanchez added: “When I got here, I thought, 'I'll win the title with this squad.' I feel that we should win more games 3-0 or 4-0, of course, that does sometimes happen when we play very well. I think Arsenal play the best brand of football in England.”

The Chilean striker was nominated for the PFA Player of the Year award and will likely be named Arsenal’s player of the year at the end of a season in which he has at times appeared to be carrying his struggling side.

But Sanchez takes no pride in individual accolades in such a disappointing year. “I don't think it has been a very good season for me because I came here to win trophies, to be competing in the Champions League semi-finals and to win the Premier League, and I feel disappointed that we aren't in a position to win the Premier League or the Champions League.

“We do have the FA Cup final coming up and we'll give it our all to try to win it.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in