Joey Barton hits out at Alexis Sanchez ahead of Man United v Arsenal

Joey Barton has criticised Alexis Sanchez for failing to deliver on the big stage after Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

The 27-year-old Chile international had been one of the Premier League’s standout performers before his recent hamstring injury, scoring six goals and making one assist in 18 top-flight games this term.

Sanchez failed to help Arsenal find the net against Barcelona as Lionel Messi scored twice in the second half as the La Liga side took a giant stride towards reaching the quarter-finals of Europe’s elite club competition.

And Barton feels that Sanchez has failed to produce consistent performances this season as the attacker and his Arsenal team-mates prepare for their crunch clash with Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking on talkSPORT on Thursday afternoon, Barton said: “Alexis Sanchez, when he signed for Arsenal, I said a bit about him being slightly inconsistent.

“Whilst everyone was getting carried away with him, I didn’t think he would be the piece in the jigsaw that took Arsenal on to be league champions – ironically this season they have a good chance of doing that.

“We saw that last night, that was a prime opportunity on the elite-level stage – go and be a match-winner, show everybody that you are an elite-level match-winner and I think he failed to do that.

“On the other side of the coin, Messi is a proven elite-level match-winner and he didn’t have his most flamboyant, his most exciting game but he did what the best in the world do.”

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Arsenal head into Sunday’s clash with United in second place in the table and two points behind leaders Leicester.