On Twitter, the Daily Mirror’s John Cross hasn’t held back in his criticism of Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez in recent weeks, including a tweet during Arsenal vs Manchester City which read “This performance should put anyone off Sanchez. There’s generally a reason why big clubs like Barcelona sell good players”.
There was also an article in the Mirror last week from the their chief football writer which questioned Sanchez’s work rate because “his running lets him down”.
As John likes a stat, we’ve got nine for him, compiled by Oulala.com.
Sanchez makes the top five in nine key areas in the Premier League this season. However, apparently “he doesn’t run around as much as you’d think”, which is of course the only stat that we really care about, right?
Of the 513 players to have appeared in the Premier League this season, the Chilean has directly been involved in the most goals (27), is the third top scorer (18), ranks fourth for assists (9), chances created (76) and successful dribbles (80), while he has also registered the fifth most shots (95) of any player.
The stats go on to show how well Sanchez has performed both defensively and in possession. The 28-year-old ranks second of all forwards (83) for tackles won (40), interceptions (18) and passes (1,189).
So, a question to Arsenal fans, do you want a player that covers a lot of ground like Peter Crouch, Shinji Okazaki or Ashley Barnes or one that scores, assists, creates, shoots, dribbles, tackles, intercepts and passes? Tough choice, right?
Russell Cane