Gary Neville reckons that Alexis Sanchez might be throwing a bit of a strop over Arsenal signing Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon.

Lacazette is an out-an-out striker, which is a position Alexis played in for Arsenal 25 times last season.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Neville questioned whether the Chilean was unhappy with the Gunners signing a £52m centre-forward, who will undoubtedly push the 28-year-old out wide again.

“My first game at Valencia he played for Lyon and he scored, like many strikers did against my Valencia defence!” Neville told Sky Sports, reports the Daily Star.

“He was a massive threat on the counter attack that night, he’s been a goalscorer, he’s scored 25-30 goals every season in the last four.

“There’s been some real success over the years for Arsenal in bringing French players in, (Olivier) Giroud, (Nicolas) Anelka.

“It will be interesting to see how he beds into the team.

“I suppose for Arsenal the big question is when Sanchez comes back, is he a replacement for Sanchez?

“You can’t see Sanchez being too happy having played central last year, going out wide.“That will be interesting to see how it evolves over the next few weeks.”

Although he doesn’t claim that this is why Alexis wants to leave, Neville does suggest that this could cause some unrest in the Arsenal camp.

However, this seems unlikely, as Arsene Wenger revealed back in April that Alexis has actually decided that he prefers to play out wide because he likes being able to touch the ball more and run at people.

“He plays with an aggressive attitude. Fortunately, he’s a player who likes to touch the ball a lot,” Wenger said.

“He prefers to play wide than up front. He can get more of the ball. He has to keep the balance between providing and goalscoring.”

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ST ALBANS, ENGLAND – AUGUST 01: Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal during a training session at London Colney on August 1, 2017 in St Albans, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

When Arsenal signed Lacazette in July, Wenger was still insisting that Alexis was staying put. Therefore, it doesn’t look as if he was signed to replace the forward, but instead to play in front of him.

 

However, events over the past week have begun to suggest that Alexis could be off after all.

Wenger’s no longer claiming that he’s optimistic over the 28-year-old signing a new deal and rather than point-blank insisting that the player is staying in north London, he’s now saying that the Gunners are just holding ‘firm’ on not selling him.

Alexis missed out on Arsenal’s insane opening day win over Leicester with an ‘abdominal injury’.