Alexis Sanchez will thrive if Arsenal fans turn on him, says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes facing down the Arsenal boo boys could be just the catalyst Alexis Sanchez needs to kick start his Manchester United career.

Sanchez is due to return to the Emirates Stadium tonight on Friday for United’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Arsenal for the first time since leaving the club for Old Trafford 12 months ago.

The Chile forward has endured a miserable past year with United, scoring just four goals and failing spectacularly to justify his exorbitant £500,000 a week wages.

But Solskjaer believes United could see the best of Sanchez if Arsenal supporters turn against their former striker and is confident the player would revel in a hostile atmosphere.

“He’ll be involved,” United’s caretaker manager said. “I think he’ll love it if the crowd turn against him. As a player, pride kicks in and you think, ‘I’ll show all of you’.

“He’s been fantastic in training, his attitude has been spot on so hopefully he’ll enjoy the game.”

Sanchez has played just 91 minutes of football for United since Nov. 24 following a hamstring tear and complications with his recovery and has fallen to sixth in the attacking pecking order behind Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku.

Unai Emery, the Arsenal manager who tried to sign Sanchez in 2017 when he was in charge of Paris St-Germain, believes United’s transformation under Solskjaer could also help to reinvigorate the Chilean. “In the last matches they are playing very well with very big performances,” Emery said. “He [Sanchez] has been starting on the bench after an injury but if he plays we need to work to stop him because he is a very good player.

“Now this [United] team is different and they are playing with more confidence. They lost a lot of points in the season but now they are very dangerous and in a very good moment. They are winning and whether he [Sanchez] plays with one player or another, they are [delivering] big performances.

“He is a very good player. When I was at PSG, we thought we could help him. We spoke about a lot of important players and one was the possibility of Alexis [joining] but it was not possible.”

Paul Pogba’s resurgence under Solskjaer could certainly offer Sanchez encouragement that he, too, can recover his best form. Pogba was stripped of captaincy duties by former manager Jose Mourinho but Solskjaer insisted he would have no hesitation in handing the France midfielder the armband down the line. Ashley Young is currently captain with club captain Antonio Valencia struggling to get into the team.

“Definitely, yeah, because I know the boy from before and he is a leader,” Solskjaer said of Pogba. “He’s a character, he influences people. He cares and he really wants to be successful.

“You see the personality. When the performances come as well, that marries together as a good leader. So for me, yes, he’s captain material.”

Solskjaer believes nothing in the Premier League era has got close to replicating the “special” rivalry that existed between United and Arsenal in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“Of course you do hope that we can get up to that level again, against is it City or Liverpool?” Solskjaer said. “Because when you see City and Liverpool at the moment, they are two very good football teams and the game they played this month was a fantastic one, but let’s wait and see how long it lasts because that rivalry between us [and Arsenal] was special because every year it was just between the two of us until Jose came along with Chelsea [in 2004].”

Solskjaer said he felt the rivalry was at its fiercest in 1998/99 and he believes Arsenal would have gone on to win the double that season - and shattered United’s treble dream - but for Peter Schmeichel saving Dennis Bergkamp’s penalty in the last minute of normal time in their historic FA Cup semi-final replay at Villa Park. Ryan Giggs’s stunning solo goal in extra-time secured a dramatic 2-1 win and United went on to win the Cup as well as the Premier League - finishing a point above Arsenal - and Champions League.

“The semi final in ’99 is such an important game and when Peter saves that penalty from Dennis Bergkamp that gives us the advantage and we win the treble,” Solskjaer said.

“If Bergkamp had scored they’d have won the double, that’s how small the margins are, that’s the standout for me.”

Gary Neville, the former United defender, claimed that Cup semi-final was “the best game of football I have ever played in” and also said it was “the only time in a football match where I ever smiled when I was playing”.

“I think it did top the Bayern Munich game [when United scored twice in stoppage time to win the European Cup and complete the treble] because we didn’t play well in that game,” Neville said. “I always remember Phil [Neville’s young brother] giving the penalty away and me thinking, ‘Oh my God, not you’.

“After the game we were being carried off the pitch but Tony Adams and Lee Dixon were standing outside our changing rooms to shake our hands - that is the one big thing that stands out for me. I remember thinking, ‘Bloody hell, they are proper guys these two, well done to them to do that’.”