The former Chelsea goalkeeper believes the attacker has recovered from a Copa America hangover and praised the Gunners defence after another clean sheet at the weekend
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has hailed Gunners team-mate Alexis Sanchez following the comprehensive 3-0 Premier League victory over Manchester United on Sunday.
Sanchez had a slow start to the Premier League season, but following a hat-trick last week’s 5-2 win over Leicester City and a brace in the win over Louis van Gaal’s side, Cech believes that the Chilean is back to his best.
According to the former Chelsea goalkeeper, the forward’s slow start was down to a prolonged stint at the Copa America in the close-season, eventually gaining a winners’ medal with Chile.
“We’re pleased that he’s back with his energy, with his enthusiasm and you can see that he feels confident and with performances like that, it’s great for the team,” Cech told Arsenal Player.
“It’s always hard for the players when you have the Copa America.
“He won it, he was there for a really long time, didn’t have much break and then came back and needed to start again.
“You could see that everybody from the Copa America had a slow start, in other teams and competitions as well.
After deputising for the hapless David Ospina in the damaging Champions League defeat to Olympiacos last week, Cech returned to collect his fourth Arsenal clean sheet in the win over United and the 33-year-old praised the Gunners’ defenders.
“Every clean sheet counts. There was an important save right at the end of the first half, which I’m pleased with,” the Czech Republic international goalkeeper added.
“The whole team defended very well as a unit against Manchester United and we deserved the clean sheet.”
The Champions League-winning goalkeeper also indicated that Arsenal’s blistering start was key to controlling Sunday’s game.
“We put in the right intensity and the first goal helped,” he continued.
“Once you go one up, you can get the game under control.
“What was good was that we searched for the second and third goals and they came pretty quickly. We managed to get ourselves the advantage and I think we did remarkably well to control the game afterwards.”