Alexis Sanchez eyes move to European conquerors but rivals remain favourites

This summer’s Deadline Day looked set to see a huge move for Alexis Sanchez away from Arsenal to rivals Manchester City - fast forward just under three weeks and the Chilean is still very much part of the fabric at the North London club. So what will January bring? What Are The Odds looks at the odds on Sanchez leaving at the start of 2018.

Current odds at Paddy Power are still giving Manchester City the nod to revisit the Sanchez transfer in January and get the deal done. They are priced at 7/2 (4.50), however it’s somewhat surprising that the price on-offer is still so high - could it be that the blue half of Manchester will wait until the end of the season to pick up Sanchez on a free transfer instead? If Aguero and Jesus continue to do the business for Guardiola’s side it would be hard to see even Sanchez breaking into City’s formidable attacking unit.

Perhaps it’s not so surprising to see that Arsenal are clear favourites to retain Sanchez until the end of the season with short odds of 2/5 (1.50). The Chilean returned to scoring ways for the Gunners in their 3-1 victory over FC Koln last week in the Europa League, but had to make do with a cameo appearance from the bench in the Super Sunday goalless draw clash against rivals Chelsea.

One club who are making all the headlines this week with their somewhat shocking interest in signing Alexis Sanchez in January are Real Madrid. The La Liga champions are rumoured to be very interested in getting a deal done, but a report in the Sun has suggested that senior players at the club don’t want the former Barcelona man to sign on at the Bernabeu at the turn of the year. Whatever happens here it’s likely Arsenal would be more susceptible to let their star man leave to a club overseas than to a direct league rival - odds of 12/1 (13.0) are an indication that there are more doubts than certainties on whether such a move will happen.

Interestingly one club is shorter odds than Madrid to pluck Sanchez from Arsenal, and that’s Chelsea. Odds of 9/1 (10.0) are offered, but on what basis? There has been little in the way of paper talk surrounding such a transfer - however it would make sense considering the Blues are lacking depth with the likely departure of Diego Costa in January to Atletico Madrid. Ashley Cole made the controversial move to the west of London from Arsenal so will we see such a move again in January? If Sanchez is to pull on the blue of the champions then it’s guaranteed to stir further criticism in the way of Arsene Wenger and the club’s board.

Probability of Alexis Sanchez's next club