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Football

24th Jan 2018

Willian rubs salt in Arsene Wenger’s wound when discussing Alexis Sanchez

As if he needed to be reminded

Darragh Murphy

Just in case he didn’t realise it already, Arsene Wenger has been given a friendly reminder that he’s just lost a very talented member of his squad.

On the off chance that you’ve somehow not heard, Alexis Sanchez moved from Arsenal to Manchester United this week in a deal which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan move in the opposite direction.

Sanchez’s arrival is seen as a huge coup for United manager Jose Mourinho as he snatched the Chile international from under the nose of arch-rivals Manchester City.

Sanchez has been hailed by one of Mourinho’s scouts as “one of the best five players in the world” and he will be sorely missed at the Emirates.

Wenger is well aware of that fact but, just in case he’d forgotten, Chelsea winger Willian felt it appropriate to remind the Arsenal boss ahead of their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg clash.

“To lose this kind of player is not easy,” Willian told the Evening Standard. “It would be like losing Eden [Hazard] here – he is a great player. Is he that important to them? Of course.

“No one wants to lose this kind of player. They are two great players but [unlike Sanchez] Eden is still here.

“Great players have quality to play in matches like this. Arsenal have other players but Sanchez is special.”

Consider those wounds nice and salted, Mr Wenger.