There was a pretty damning statistic about Arsenal in the media this week, showing that without the direct contribution of our new summer signing Alexis Sanchez with his eight goals and two goal assists in the Premier League, as reported by the Daily Mail, then the Gunners would be down in 17th place.
But although that is too simplistic because we would have had someone else playing, it clearly highlights how much Arsenal have relied on the Chile international since he signed from Barcelona this summer. And it is not just his goals, assists and general play that is important to us. I think his example to the other players could be even more crucial.
Quite a few of his new team mates have already spoken about his love for the game, his tireless efforts in training and his burning desire to win. If a few more Gunners had shown some of that in the last few games, we would be celebrating two wins rather than a draw and a loss.
To be honest, I can already see the effects of Alexis rubbing off, most noticeably on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck so far, but maybe on Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey as well. And the more of our players start to copy the attitude and effort of Alexis, the more the others will feel they have to as well.
Imagine all 10 of the Arsenal outfield players going into a game with that mindset….