Petr Cech leaps to defence of Alexis Sanchez for laughing on the bench

Petr Cech has leapt to the defence of Alexis Sanchez and insisted he was left heartbroken by Arsenal’s Champions League humiliation.
Sanchez was pictured laughing on the bench with keeper Cech during Arsenal’s defeat to Bayern Munich which has only succeeded in putting the Chile superstar under even more scrutiny.
The Gunners top scorer was dropped at Liverpool last week after Mirror Sport revealed he has had a series of rows with Arsene Wenger and looks set to leave this summer with Paris Saint Germain leading the chase.
But Cech has defended Sanchez after insisting if anything it was a rueful smile because he was disappointed at the sense of injustice after Arsenal’s Bayern beating.
Cech said: “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.
“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.”
Former Chelsea keeper Cech also defender under-pressure Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger who is fighting to save his job after the club’s sorry run of results left their season in meltdown.
But Cech says the players must respond on the pitch and it is down to them to change the mood among the fans who are calling for Wenger to go.
Cech added: “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.
“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.”
Mirror.com