Alexis Sanchez made plenty of headlines prior to Arsenal’s Champions League clash with Bayern Munich and is likely to make a few more following another humbling night for the Gunners.
Those supporters that made the journey to witness a 5-1 mauling at the hands of the German giants had aired their anger at manager Arsene Wenger during a pre-match protest.
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The Frenchman’s decision to leave Alexis on the bench for a Premier League meeting with Liverpool last time out had helped to fan those flames, with talk of training ground bust-ups doing the rounds.
Such talk was quickly played down, but Sanchez did little to endear himself to his under-fire boss against Bayern.
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He was returned to the starting XI on Tuesday, but was hauled off in the 73rd minute with Arsenal on the ropes.
Already 2-1 down on the night by that stage, Alexis clearly found something amusing after taking his seat in the dugout and seeing the Gunners concede three more times to crash out 10-2 on aggregate.
One of those nights... #AFCvFCB pic.twitter.com/gLBPxyoNge
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) March 7, 2017
Arsenal will get the opportunity to offer a positive response to their European mauling when they face Lincoln City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on Saturday.
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Progress in that competition is now imperative, as is pushing back into the Premier League’s top four and securing a passage back to the Champions League for 2017-18.
Whether Alexis is still around to see out that campaign remains to be seen, with his midweek actions likely to spark another round of exit talk.