A LOOK BACK: Over the years, Alexis Sanchez has seemingly struggled to make his mind up over what kind of realtionship he wants to have with Arsenal fans after his controversial exit
Nowadays, Alexis Sanchez is hardly remembered particularly fondly by either fanbase of the two Premier League clubs he represented, Arsenal and Manchester United.
The Chilean first arrived in English football to ply his trade for the Gunners, where he played for three-and-a-half years as his goals helped fire Arsenal to two FA Cup triumphs and secure Champions League football for the majority of his time in north London. He was adored by the Emirates faithful.
That was at least until he upped sticks and signed for fierce rivals United in January 2018. Sanchez became a Red Devil as part of a deal that saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan head in the opposite direction. It wouldn’t work out for either of them, but Sanchez did enjoy one standout moment to savour in a United shirt.
One year after swapping the Emirates for Old Trafford, Sanchez returned as a United player for the fourth round of the FA Cup. The home faithful’s worst fears were realised when the Chile international opened the scoring, as he expertly rounded Petr Cech before chipping his strike into the net.
United went on to win 3-1 and dump Arsenal out of the competition, but if that wasn’t bad enough, Sanchez took to social media to poke fun at his old side the day after.
Under the guise of his dog’s Instagram account, the former Barcelona ace posted a picture of a mocked poster of Will Smith’s film I Am Legend. Sanchez’s face has been photoshopped on to the Hollywood star’s while the title of the film has changed to ‘I Am Back’.
The post was accompanied by a caption that read: “He came back to play the piano. They faced the music.” The message is a reference to Sanchez’s now infamous announcement video following his switch to United which showed him playing the piano in full kit.
A detailed touch, the credits at the bottom of the poster even feature the starting line-up that played against Arsenal that night.
As expected, the teasing did not go down well with Arsenal fans but it did endear him to the United faithful.
Fast forward four years and the landscape of Sanchez’s relationship with both sets of supporters is drastically different. While he is hardly considered a legend by either, the 34-year-old now seems keener on winning the Gunners over.
Ahead of Arsenal’s meeting with United earlier this year, Sanchez seemed to imply he would be rooting for Mikel Arteta’s men over the Red Devils.
In the build-up to the fixture in January, Arsenal’s social media team posted a clip of Sanchez’s thunderous strike in the 3-0 win over United back in 2015, which prompted a touching reply from the goalscorer himself.
Alexis Sanchez is widely viewed as one of the best Arsenal players of the Emirates-era
Sanchez re-posted the goal alongside the message: “You remembered me, I will never forget you too. You will always be in my heart. You were my first family in England, and everybody took good care of me, especially the fans. All the best Gunners.”
The tribute is certainly a far cry from the spoof poster and flaunting his goal against the club, but maybe there is room for Sanchez to mend his relationship with Arsenal fans after all.
Source: mirror.co.uk
