Thousands of fans from Chile have organised a march, asking Alexis Sanchez to leave Arsenal due to a lack of support at the Premier League club.
Sanchez has been Arsenal’s most impressive performer this campaign – he has scored 20 goals and provided 16 assists across all competitions – but has been powerless to prevent the club’s recent struggles, which continued with a 5-1 defeat against Bayern Munich in their Champions League Last 16, first leg tie this week.
The 28-year-old is currently in Barcelona to attend a court case relating to tax fraud but will return to training with Arsenal this weekend.
Chilean supporters have used Facebook to promote the protest, which will take place in Santiago on March 1 amid Arsenal’s woes.
The event – named ‘National March for Alexis Sanchez to leave Arsenal’ – already has over 4,000 attendees.
It comes after Arsenal were embarrassed 5-1 by Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday, with former Barcelona star Sanchez cutting a lonely figure afterwards amid uncertainty over his future as his contract is due to expire at the end of next season, and his countrymen back home are fed up.
“We, as Chileans are tired to watch one of our biggest stars play on his own to make his team get through,” a description of the event said on Facebook.
“We don’t want him to play at Real Madrid, nor go back to Barcelona, we don’t give a f*** where he plays, we just want him to fight along with 10 other players to get the results.
“He doesn’t deserve to be alone.”
Sanchez was on the scoresheet at Allianz Arena but it was in vain as Arsenal collapsed.
The Chile international forward missed a penalty but scored at the second attempt to cancel out Arjen Robben’s opener, before Bayern piled on four unanswered goals in the second half.
Sanchez – who escaped to Italy following the Bavarian humiliation – tops the Premier League’s goalscoring charts with 17 goals, one more than nearest rival Romelu Lukaku after 25 rounds.
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