With speculation rife about Alexis Sanchez’s Arsenal future, a Chilean journalist seems to think that he’s pretty happy at Arsenal and is becoming a better player than he was at Barcelona.

Carlos Gonzalez Lucay, a journalist with La Tercera, recently spoke to Four Four Two for a feature on Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in their latest edition.

In addition to all the WAGE DEMANDS the tabloids are telling us he is making, we are also now told he’s huffing with the entire team.

At his pre-Preston press conference, Arsene Wenger wasn’t bothered about the storm John Cross and co. were trying to whip up.  “Well, what is surprising there?” Wenger asked with incredulity when a reporter tried to find out if there was any truth to the story about Alexis being unhappy during and after the Bournemouth game. “You want to win the games and when you don’t win, you are unhappy – it is normal.”

Asked what he was like in the dressing room after the game, Wenger simply replied, “Alright.” Then a reporter enquired if he wanted to see that passion [duh], he said, “Of course. Without passion, you do not come back after 70 minutes from three goals down in the Premier League.

“First of all it is exceptional, it doesn’t often happen in the Premier League and you need a special response, which is what happened.

“We wanted to win the game, and we didn’t do that so we are all frustrated.

“Of course [he is fine].”

If you based your opinion of Alexis’ Arsenal happiness solely on what you read in the tabloids, you’d be fairly sure he’s a certainty to leave this summer.

Narrative

But is that really the case? Or, is it more that the tabloids have sensed a narrative they can batter to death?

They’d love nothing more than Alexis to leave in the summer so they can tear into Arsenal for being unable to hold on to players.

But the reporter, Gonzalez Lucay, who seems to have followed Alexis’ career closely rather than solely when he arrived in England like many tabloid hacks, had a different take when speaking about Alexis playing as a centre forward.

“Alexis performs better upfront,” he told FFT.

“There, he can really take advantage because he’s among the world’s best when one-on-one with a defender.

“He benefits from the Premier League’s intensity and he’s been embraced in a much better way than he was at Barcelona, which makes him feel more important.

“He’s become a more complete player in England.

“He was quite selfish, wanting to resolve everything on his own; now, he understands that he can rely on his team-mates.”

Wenger has already said that he will hold Alexis to his contract, but I don’t see him leaving, not this summer at least.

Next summer, if no new deal has been agreed, then it’s a completely different ball game.

For now, he’s still very much a Gunner.