Man Utd news: Ex-Red Devils ace dismisses Alexis Sanchez doubts ahead of Brighton tie

At least that’s what Wes Brown thinks.

United paid £30million to sign Sanchez and send out-of-favour playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Arsenal as part of the deal back in January.

But under Jose Mourinho the Chilean international has been far from his explosive best. He produced only two goals and three assists in 14 appearances following eight goals and three assists in the first half of the season for Arsenal with his performances unusually subdued.

And Sanchez was disappointing again as United raised the curtain on the new Premier League season with a 2-1 win at home to Leicester City last weekend.

The 29-year-old lost the ball 23 times against the Foxes and though he won the penalty which Paul Pogba opened the scoring from just three minutes in, had an evening largely to forget.

Sanchez has very rarely displayed the kind of performance that made him one of the Premier league’s best players while he was at the Gunners.

But former United regular Brown – who won five Premier League titles and made 362 appearances for the club – expects Sanchez to recapture his form sooner rather than later in 2018-19.

And he also hopes to Marcus Rashford and want-away forward Anthony Martial, who agitated for a move away in the summer transfer window, cement important roles in Mourinho’s plans for the campaign.

“I don’t think it’s not working,” Brown – still playing for Indian Super League club Kerala Blasters at the age of 38 – told the Daily Star when asked about Sanchez.

“We all have faith in him, he was a fantastic player at Arsenal, he got bought in January.

“It takes a while to settle in and after one game [of the season] I don’t think you can really say that.

“But you know he’s a fantastic talent and I’m sure he’ll be getting better all the time.

“I like Martial, I really do. I know he didn’t get much game-time last season but he’s a player that if I was playing against he’s just a pure threat with his speed.

“He’s a player that United have who definitely can change a game and hopefully he can get in the team.

“Players will be fighting for positions and in that area there’s a good battle going on they’ve got fantastic players.

“I like Rashford, complete threat I would call it, I’d hate to play against him. I think he’s going to get better every year now, same with [Jesse] Lingard.

“They’re all sort of the same position and that’s what I mean, they’ve got to prove it, they’ve got to prove it in training, prove it to the manager and then do it in the games.

“And I’m guessing that that’s what it’ll come down to at the end of the day.”

United return to action tomorrow with a trip to Brighton (4pm) where Sanchez will likely operate on the left side of attack.

Elsewhere, Romelu Lukaku and Ashley Young could return to the starting line-up with Antonio Valencia, Diogo Dalot, Marcos Rojo, Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera and Sergio Romero all sidelined through injury.