That’s the opinion of Ian Wright.
The 29-year-old has been widely criticised for his displays since moving to Old Trafford last January and was restricted to appearances from the bench against Newcastle and Chelsea lately.
But the former Arsenal star was in improved form against the Cherries as United once again came from behind to win, leading the line with Romelu Lukaku absent through injury.
After a first half that Jose Mourinho described as “absolutely awful” defensively with Anthony Martial cancelling out Callum Wilson’s effort against the run of play, Marcus Rashford scored a stoppage-time winner for United on the south coast.
And Wright believes Sanchez played a significant part in the win after he provided the assist for Martial’s equaliser in the 35th minute and brought movement and liveliness up top.
But the Chilean was hauled off by Mourinho late on in favour of Jesse Lingered with United still chasing a winner and former Arsenal striker Wright thinks Sanchez should not be happy about his manager’s decision.
Asked whether Sanchez was back to his best against Bournemouth, Wright said on Match of the Day: “Yeah we’re seeing it now.
“The thing is, I was quite pleased for him because we know he’s a quality player but what he done today – he stretched them and got himself into positions.
“When you’ve got time on the ball like [Paul] Pogba had, he’s making great runs. Super run and you’re thinking Pogba might be able to find him.
“He was doing this quite frequently, stretching them, and going into nice positions. I think it [Sanchez] suits him [playing centrally] because he naturally wants to stretch team and he’s got the quality and ability to cause teams problems.
“This is the goal, he wins the ball – people saying it was handball, I thought it just hit him really – then he picked Martial out beautifully.
“Brilliant movement and could have scored today, he was unfortunate not to score.
“This is real quality – holds it up well, great skill, lays it off and then gets his time on the ball to play balls like that. That’s what he can do.
“I thought he was unfortunate to get taken off today. I think he’s getting somewhere near what we know and I’d have been very disappointed being taken off after playing like that today.”
Likewise Mourinho was impressed by Sanchez as he explained the thinking behind his attacking unit.
He continued: “The way I like to play is with three attacking players where there is not a clear definition of the winger as a winger.
“And I like the winger is somebody with a striker or formation or with a striker appetite. I always had that in my team, with wingers scoring a lot of goals, sometimes even more goals than the striker.
“So is not impossible at all to have in the same team and at same time Romelu Lukaku or Alexis, for example.
“Today Romelu was not available and we thought Alexis could do what he did, he a had a good assist, mobility, he create some problems.”
Sanchez could also be trusted to start up front when United face Juventus away from home in the Champions League on Wednesday night (8pm) with Lukaku battling to recover from a muscle injury in time.
