Speaking after the dominant victory against Manchester United, Arsenal defender Nacho Monreal heaped praise on teammate Alexis Sanchez, claiming that the team was a better outfit when he was in form (via Arsenal.com).
The Chilean attacker was lethal yesterday, scoring twice and being a constant threat down the flanks; United’s defence were simply unable to cope with him.
Speaking to the Final Whistle (via Arsenal.com), Monreal also revealed that the team wanted to produce a dominant home performance to erase the memories of the midweek loss to Olympiacos, “We wanted to start stronger because in the last game, we played at home in the Champions League and we lost, so the memory wasn’t good enough for us. We knew that we were going to play against a strong team so we needed to start really strongly.
“I think we did – our first 15 minutes were amazing. We pressed high and I think we did everything amazingly.
“For this reason, after 20 minutes we were winning 3-0. We are really happy about our performance.
“Last year he [Sanchez] showed what an important player he is for the team. He scored 25 goals in all competitions and this season he has started really well.
“In the first games, he couldn’t score goals but now he’s scoring goals. We need Alexis to score more goals and we are happy for him because he’s a really important player for us.
“When he’s fit, the level of the team is higher, so we are really happy.”
The Gunners started the game with an extremely high tempo, and caught the United players completely off guard. The much slower United midfield could simply not cope with the pace of our counter attack, and the defensive trio of Daley Blind, Matteo Darmian, and Ashley Young were overwhelmed by the frequent Arsenal attacks.
Alexis in particular was a major player, and once again showed what he is capable of. The Chilean limped off before full time with a groin injury, but will reportedly still travel to play in the international games (via Arsenal.com) – hopefully it is nothing too serious.