Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has leapt to the defence of wayward star Alexis Sanchez, claiming that he was 'heartbroken' after the Bayern Munich defeat despite conflicting reports.
Sanchez was pictured laughing on the bench during Arsenal's 5-1 second-leg defeat to Bayern in the Champions League, prompting intense scrutiny from fans.
The Chileinternational was dropped for Arsenal's 3-1 loss against Liverpool last weekend andreportshave claimed that the 28-year-old could be sold in the summer.
But Cech has leapt to the defence of his Arsenal teammate, claiming that if anything the picture has been taken out of context.
It is sad and he was as sad as I have seen him. And unfortunately when you say the sentence, ˜had we scored the second goal everything could look different' and then you do ˜ooh' (as in the noise) you know," theMirrorquote Cech as saying.
Petr Cech leaps to defence of Alexis Sanchez and insists he wasn't laughing on the subs' bench https://t.co/lNio8OG4mb
But obviously you can take the picture and you can interpret it the way you want unfortunately. But we the players we know exactly what he said and we know how he was hurting and he was as disappointed as anybody else. It is unfortunate and disappointing.�
Cech also had a few words for under-pressure manager Arsene Wenger, who has faced calls to resign this week following a particularly woeful run of form in recent months.
He continued:In a way the manager plays a big part but you as a player are on the pitch. He cannot make you run if you don't want to he cannot make you make the right decision in the heat of the moment.
The players obviously have to share the responsibility, everybody has to share the responsibility for the position we are in and everybody has to work to get ourselves out [of it].
This is the way it is. We have been...this week after Bayern especially was a difficult three days, we had to make sure we got ready and we got ready and this is the reaction you need.
Arsenal fans are protesting in numbers against Arsene Wenger at the Emirates. pic.twitter.com/UcMobv8teb
I think in football everything goes fast and as fast as you can go up you can go down. So basically every day you work to be ready.
In football you only work for the things you can control, you cannot control the outside world, you can only control your preparation, you can only control your performances.
So as a player you focus on that and I believe as a manager he does the same thing. This is going to be the key now, be ready, be prepared as a team and then do the best we can do. Then I think if you bring the results, atmosphere will change.
It is always important to win. We would obviously like to go and try to win the FA Cup. We booked our place at Wembley and we are looking forward to the semi-final, which is always great.
But obviously we need to improve the form in the league, this is what's going to be crucial now. We have an away game at West Brom then the international break so we need to make sure we go into the West Brom game ready to get three points.�