Alexis Sanchez should never be left on the bench… I can’t understand what Arsene Wenger was doing

I CANNOT for the life of me understand what Arsene Wenger was doing at Liverpool on Saturday.

It is one of your biggest games of the season and you leave your best player on the bench.

If the Arsenal manager was trying to prove some sort of point to Alexis Sanchez it backfired badly.

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He ended up giving further ammunition to those who would like to see him leave.

Wenger claimed afterwards it was tactical. He wanted to be more direct in a bid to overcome Liverpool’s pressing game.
What? Arsenal direct?

Is this not the man who firmly sticks to certain principles of playing come what may. In the end they didn’t play like that anyway.

More likely it was a response to Sanchez’s contract stand-off.

But if this was supposed to push him into signing a new deal I guess it would have the opposite effect.

As it was Sanchez embarrassed his manager into bringing him on after a dreadful first half.

Sanchez immediately began to turn the tide, setting up a goal for Danny Welbeck and bringing Arsenal back in the game.
He has now been involved in 26 league goals for Arsenal this season — 17 goals and nine assists.

You just don’t leave a player like that on the bench.

You do not let your own feelings or stubbornness come before what is best for the team.

Yet that appears to be what has happened and it was a decision that simply added to the mess Arsenal are in right now.

They appear to be a club that does not know where it is going, what it wants to do. They are in a kind of footballing limbo.

That is not being helped by the manager’s refusal to commit to a new deal . . . making it a bit rich if he has a problem with Sanchez doing the same.

Players do not know who is going to be the manager next season and the club seems lost on and off the pitch.

Goodness knows what the atmosphere will be like tomorrow as they attempt mission impossible by overcoming a 5-1 first-leg deficit against Bayern Munich.

Bayern tore Arsenal to shreds in Germany. It was embarrassing and there could be more in store tomorrow night.

It will lead to that unedifying prospect of fans arguing among themselves about what should be done about their manager.
There is an understandable loyalty amongst many but a deep frustration with others.

Look at Wenger’s incredible record qualifying for the Champions League for 19 consecutive seasons and you can understand why the board want to keep him.

But even the prospect of another big pay day in club football’s premier competition next season is now under threat.
We will obviously not know if it is right to get rid of Wenger until he leaves.

Then we will see if he was holding Arsenal back from being serious title contenders again — or he truly was the right man to keep a firm hand on things.

What is certain, is it is sad to see such a great manager in a position where he is being blamed for failure when at one time he was the reason for success.

If he does leave in the summer, it is not the way he would want to go out — or should go out.

But by making decisions like the one on Saturday, he is not helping himself.

Even Lincoln will be licking their lips at what is going on right now. Remember, the non-leaguers are next up at the Emirates after Bayern in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final.

It seems inconceivable that the fairytale can continue for The Imps — but Arsenal are vulnerable right now.

If anything, Wenger needs the Cup to salvage something from the season.

If he lifts a third FA Cup in four years perhaps that would be the most comfortable way for him to say farewell.

He certainly does not deserve to bow out with boos ringing in his ears. But right now that is the real danger.