We all know that stats can be misleading in football, such as all the possession and extra chances and shots on target that the Gunners were having earlier in the season, while the fans watching the game could see that we were not playing well enough to win.
And sometimes stats are simply superfluous, as you don’t really need to see the figures to realise that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are in a little class of their own, you just need to watch them play. And you don’t really need the stats on Alexis Sanchez to tell you that the Chilean international has really hit the ground running since his summer transfer from Barcelona to Arsenal.
But the stats shown in a Metro report do make pretty impressive reading in any case. My favourite is the one which reveals that our new signing’s 10 goals in all competitions is the same number scored by all four Man United forwards Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Radamel Falcao and Angel Di Maria put together.
And it is also the same number scored by the Chelsea and Spain international striker Diego Costa, who has been getting rave reviews for his start in the Premier League. Another telling stat and one that suggests that Alexis will go on to even greater things and perhaps end up joining the ranks of club legends Thierry Henry, Ian Wright and Dennis Bergkamp, is that he has achieved what he has in a struggling team.
Alexis has scored seven EPL goals while Arsenal have managed just 12 in total, so how good can he be with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey playing alongside him at a high level?