• FA Cup

Sanchez fights off fatigue factor, says Wenger

Alexis Sanchez notched his 16th of the season in the FA Cup win over Hull © Getty Images

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has played down concerns that summer signing Alexis Sanchez will suffer from burnout.

The £32 million Chilean played the full 90 minutes in all of Arsenal's festive Premier League fixtures, and a few eyebrows were raised when he was named in the starting line-up for Sunday's FA Cup third-round tie with Hull - his fifth game in 13 days.

But Wenger is confident his star man can keep performing.

"He is lively and always dangerous," said Wenger of Sanchez, who scored his 16th of the season as Arsenal began the defence of their trophy with a comfortable victory over last season's runners-up.

"Alexis has a change of direction, is incisive and penetrating, and has also a good fighting spirit.

"He has a good combination of what you want to see from top players - that means being ready for a fight and talent.

Podolski and Sanogo on the way out

Lukas Podolski was given a hero's welcome when he arrived in Milan © Getty Images

• Arsene Wenger also confirmed the imminent departure of German forward Lukas Podolski, saying only: "He is going to Inter Milan."
• France under-21 forward Yaya Sanogo could be another allowed to leave during the January window, preferably to another club in England, though Ligue 1 side Bordeaux reported to be interested.
• "Podolski was frustrated because he didn't get chance to play, I can understand, but Sanogo is more in search for experience at the top level in the Premier League. If he can get that, we will see," Wenger added.
• "Sanogo is ready to play, but I have so many options up front it is difficult for him to play."

"You look at the players who have that confidence and you are torn between when a player is that confident to keep him on playing or give him a rest.

"But when the players are confident it is important to keep them going, especially when they have that physical potential.

"Sanchez recovers very quickly and he doesn't look in our tests to have any fatigue problem."

Following a busy Christmas fixture list in the league, there were the expected sweeping changes for both Arsenal and Hull at the Emirates, with Theo Walcott making his first start in a year since a serious knee injury, while the visitors switched no fewer than 10 players from their New Year's Day win over Everton.

Arsenal made the most of their positive opening. Joel Campbell had seen an early one-on-one opportunity saved, but Per Mertesacker headed the home side into the lead from a corner on 20 minutes.

Any hopes of a comeback by Hull, who had raced into a 2-0 advantage at Wembley last May before losing in extra-time, were ended when Sanchez capped another man-of-the-match display with a fine curling effort on 82 minutes.

"We had a serious performance and we were in control," said Wenger, whose side lost 2-0 at Southampton on Thursday.

"Of course as long as we don't score the second goal, you never know, but it was a positive game and we created a lot of chances."

Wenger was glad Walcott came through his first real test after recovering from an injury which shattered his World Cup dream.

"Theo looked dangerous. You could see he hasn't lost the quality of his runs," Wenger said.

"He lacks a bit of competition, but that will come. What he has done tonight after being out for a year is quite positive."

Hull manager Steve Bruce had few complaints at the final outcome.

"It is a fair result," he said. "We huffed and puffed, but didn't have any cutting edge to make the cup tie come alive.

"We made 10 changes with all the injuries we have got, and that wasn't a case of disrespecting the cup because we had one of the best days of our lives in the competition last year.

"It was always going to be difficult once we picked them out of the hat."

Hull are in need of reinforcements during January, but Bruce played down suggestions he is in talks with former Tottenham and England striker Jermain Defoe - who is believed to be unhappy with Toronto in the MLS.

"He might be too expensive. If there is a chance we would be interested in him, but I don't want to get the hopes up of all the Hull supporters. There is a long way to go," Bruce said.

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