Is Alexis Sanchez Passionate Or Unhappy?

There is a curious tendency in sport to see an outward show of emotion as some kind of transgression which is not to be tolerated; any expression of character an unwelcome diversion from the clean, clear lines along which our experience of the game should run.

Alexis Sanchez’s “sulk” against Swansea City was one such moment, but there are many. You can see it in the attempt to make a unique individual like Lewis Hamilton conform to convention or the rush to vilify Nick Kyrgios when he shows his personality, warts and all, during a meltdown on a tennis court. You can see it in football, almost every week, when scenes that fans love to see — pushing, forehead-butting, throat-grabbing — are routinely described as scenes “no one likes to see”.

What such analysis misses is that it is precisely these moments which make sports stars human. It makes them accessible and understandable on some level, rather than being athletic automatons who do as they are instructed, say what they have been coached to say and then troop back merrily onto the team bus to go back into cold storage for next weekend, when they will do exactly the same.

Sanchez is not one of these automatons: at heightened moments his emotions are unconfined and that is absolutely a good thing, for Arsenal and for football. It’s not all cheesy pictures on Instagram with his two dogs. Sometimes there is a frown too, and sometimes there is a full-on funk, as we saw at the weekend.

His reaction to being substituted in the 4-0 win at the Liberty Stadium was admittedly childish and petulant but it also invited a rather strange response. Like a clairvoyant trying to predict the future with the help of tea leaves, some were trying to ascertain whether Sanchez’s decision to have a strop and hide under a big coat while play continued was some kind of clever, coded message about his destiny at the club and his unhappiness about recent contract discussions.

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger put the incident down to cultural differences between South Americans and Europeans, as though no English player had ever been annoyed to be substituted. Back in reality the meaning was entirely obvious. After scoring once, Sanchez wanted to fill his boots against a woeful team and go clear at the top of the goalscoring charts. Instead he is now just joint top with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Costa with 14 goals.

At a time when Chelsea’s top scorer and West Ham’s best player, Dimitri Payet, are both in exile from their respective teams due to how poorly they have handled reported transfer interest, it is surely to Sanchez’s credit that, faced with similar stories of huge pay-days in China or, on Wednesday, a possible transfer to Juventus, he remains as fiercely motivated as ever to play every minute for his team. That’s just the kind of player Sanchez is: the man who never wants a rest.

He is also a winner, as he showed against Bournemouth in his other famous eruption this season when he hurled his gloves to the floor after Arsenal had failed to complete the comeback from 3-0 down and had to settle for a 3-3 draw. Again it was seen through the prism of his contract impasse but the meaning was obvious enough. He simply wanted to win.

This is an asset for the club, not a problem to be reckoned with, even if such flashes of annoyance are invariably portrayed as acts of dissent in football, in the process being endowed with more importance than they deserve.

Really, Sanchez’s frustration just matches that of the Arsenal fans. Not with the singular result at Swansea, which being a 4-0 away win was more than acceptable, but the wider frustration with the inhibition of potential that the club has seen over a number of years. They can empathise when he hurls his gloves to the ground.

Sanchez wants to be the best player he can be and his team to be the best team. He wants to score as many goals as possible and for Arsenal to win trophies. What could be less controversial than that?