Arsene Wenger has revealed Alexis Sanchez is in contention to start Arsenal’s match against Liverpool next weekend but warned the Chilean will need time to reach his best form.
Sanchez returned to full training last week after being out with an abdominal injury, having not played since his country’s Confederations Cup final against Germany on July 2.
Arsenal missed the forward’s dynamism in the 1-0 defeat at Stoke as speculation over his departure persists, even though Wenger insists the 28-year-old is staying.
And the Arsenal manager is ready to pick Sanchez at Anfield on Sunday.
‘If all goes well through the week, he should be available to be selected for the next game,’ said Wenger, before adding a caveat.
‘He has not played for a long time. Look, we will prepare him well. He was out with a muscular strain and hopefully he will survive the tests first before he comes back.
‘He’s not played now for six weeks and it’s difficult to be at your best in the first game straight away.’
Wenger said he picked Nacho Monreal as the central defender in his back-three system at Stoke because Rob Holding, left out of the squad entirely, suffered a drop in confidence after the 4-3 win over Leicester.
The Frenchman called for calm after the result at the bet365 Stadium. ‘Let’s not go overboard, we lost one game,’ he said.
‘I can understand that, but overall I believe there were a lot of positives as well because we created many chances. We had great domination and unfortunately we dropped three points.’
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