Man Utd ace Alexis Sanchez reveals Jose Mourinho transfer chat following Arsenal switch

ALEXIS SANCHEZ struggled to produce a sample for the Wembley dope testers then explained why Manchester United have had wait to see the best of him.

The Chile striker was the last player to emerge from a stadium he must wish he could play in every week.

Sanchez had underlined the old sporting maxim that while form is temporary, class is permanent by stepping up to the plate just when United needed him most.

A stunning headed goal and an assist for Ander Herrera’s winner represented his most telling contribution since his January move from Arsenal and justified Jose Mourinho’s decision to select him ahead of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial for the FA Cup semi-final.

And Sanchez promised United fans they will see the best of him next season when he says the club must aim to “win everything”.

“The change has been very, very difficult for me,” he said. “I arrived at a big club and I changed everything from before.

“The coach told me he doesn’t like to sign players in January and it would take time for me to become accustomed to the new players.

“He just tried to help me improve. He told me to attack and defend and enjoy the matches.

“I demand a lot from myself every match, every day. Now I am very happy for the team, for the goal and for the attitude we showed in the game.

“It will give me confidence. My team-mates always help me but I hope to demonstrate my qualities more. I hope we can go on and win the FA Cup but next season we have to try to win everything.”

Sanchez and Paul Pogba didn’t appear to be on the same wavelength in some of their early games together but they produced a devastating combination for United’s equaliser after Tottenham had threatened to build on Dele Alli’s 11th-minute goal.

Pogba made amends for failing to track Christian Eriksen for that goal by winning the ball off Mousa Dembele before floating the perfect cross towards the far post for Sanchez to steer a clever header past Michel Vorm and make it eight goals in six games at Wembley, following a double for Chile and five for Arsenal across two semi-finals and two finals.

“Playing here brings me a lot of luck,” he added. “I scored with the national team against England here, with Arsenal and now United.

“It was a really good pass from Pogba. At first I was thinking of heading to the first post but then I saw the goalkeeper go that way so I changed my mind and headed it back across him.”

Sanchez’s pass across the edge of the penalty area set up Herrera for a goal that knocked the stuffing out of Spurs and sent them to an eighth successive semi-final defeat.




While Sanchez revealed he has sent Arsene Wenger a message of thanks, describing him as “a gentleman and a great coach”, he clearly feels working with Mourinho will bring him the big prizes he craves.

“He is a manager that has won everything and when we don’t win, when we don’t play well, he gets very angry,” he said. “You need to be demanding like that to be successful.

“At half-time he said that we must play as a team, everyone must attack and defend, and that if we all ran and worked hard we would win.”

Chris Smalling saluted the key roles played by Sanchez and Pogba. “At United there’s a lot of expectation, there are a lot of demands that don’t happen at other clubs. It takes big players to step up in big games and they both did that,” he said.

This was the sort of all-round team performance Mourinho has been demanding on a consistent basis.