LONDON -- Arsene Wenger has dismissed reports of a fall-out with Alexis Sanchez as "completely false" and insisted the player was only dropped against Liverpool for tactical reasons.
Wenger said on Monday that he has a "normal" relationship with Sanchez, who shook hands with the Arsenal boss at the start of a training session at London Colney ahead of Tuesday's Champions League round-of-16 second leg tie against Bayern Munich.
Multiple British newspapers reported on Sunday that Wenger's decision to bench Sanchez stemmed from a series of rows with the Chilean, who is said to have stormed out of a training session last week and then clashed with teammates in the dressing room.
But when asked to clarify the situation on Monday, Wenger said: "I'm not aware [of a bust-up]. Nothing happened. Nothing at all."
He added that the reports were "completely false. But I understand that you have to fill the newspapers and we respect that. When you don't win the games it's not always down to real stories. We have to accept that."
And he stuck to his explanation that he chose to start Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck at Anfield because he wanted a more direct approach and better aerial targets. Arsenal lost 3-1 after trailing 2-0 at half-time, with Sanchez coming on after the break and setting up a goal for Welbeck.
"I explained after the game at Liverpool that I decided to go with a more direct option in the game and that's what happened," Wenger said at his news conference. "That was the unique reason for my decision. As for the rest, his attitude, he's a committed player and sometimes has excessive behaviours, but you have that many times in history in many squads."
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Sanchez, for his part, posted a message on Instagram together with a photo of himself celebrating at the Emirates.
"The true warrior fights not because he hates the ones in front of him, but because he loves those behind him," Sanchez wrote. "Let's go Gunners. The only failure is not trying."
Wenger would not say whether Sanchez would start against Bayern -- when Arsenal have to overturn a 5-1 deficit from the first leg -- but said Mesut Ozil will not be in the squad despite taking part in training on Monday. Ozil missed the Liverpool game with an illness and Wenger said he's not yet match fit.
"I don't think he's ready physically to be in the squad," Wenger said.
Wenger interrupts question to Mertesacker about whether players want him to stay: "It's not down to the players to choose a manager."
- Mattias Karén (@MattiasKaren) March 6, 2017
The reported bust-up had increased speculation that Sanchez will leave the Emirates this summer, as he has yet to sign a contract extension. But Wenger insisted that the forward's future is still in the club's hands.
"Alexis Sanchez has 15 months on his contract. So next season whether he'll be here or not will depend completely on Arsenal Football Club. Not anybody else," Wenger said.
Captain Per Mertesacker, who took part in the news conference but is not expected to start on Tuesday, also dismissed questions about Sanchez and the relationship between the Chile international and his teammates.
"I don't understand the question, honestly I don't," Mertesacker said. "It's not about individual players ... All these questions about one player are very distracting to our team and what it's about tomorrow. We have a game to face tomorrow which is really important to our team, and not to one individual player."