There were high hopes amongst Arsenal fans when their beloved club bought Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona in the summer for a fee believed to be around £32 million, however, few predicted just how much of an impact the Chile international would have in London during his freshman season at the Emirates.

After 20 matches, Alexis has already recorded 12 goals and seven assists during Premier League play this season (including a league-high five Man of the Match awards). The outstanding play of the Chilean has caught the eye of most people in and around the Premier League, including Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini.

Pellegrini, who also hails from Chile, recently overlooked his superstar in Sergio Agüero and claimed that Alexis was perhaps the Premier League’s best player. The 61-year-old manager told AS, “I see (Alexis) making a great effort game after game, showing a big commitment and with ambition and maturity to want to keep progressing year after year. I am very happy for him, as at the moment he is the big star of English football.”

The rival manager went on to say, “Alexis has gone along progressing, and his spell at Barcelona was very useful. Also he was able to share a dressing room with great players for some years. The only way you could criticize Alexis during his career was that he did not score many goals. He was not a goalscorer. But he has improved notably in this over recent years.”

While Alexis has undoubtedly aided the Gunners attack in an extremely positive way, it’s his defensive contribution that helps set him apart from other Premier League stars. Shown below is a table of five of the top players in England. There are seven major categories and the five players received five points for the highest total in each category and one point for the lowest (shown in parentheses). These statistics help prove that Alexis is the class of the Premier League this season.

     Alexis      Hazard      Agüero*      Fabregas        Costa
Goals        12 (3)          8 (2)          14 (4)          2 (1)          15 (5)
Assists          7 (4)          4 (3)          3 (2)          14 (5)            1 (1)
Key Passes        49 (5)          49 (5)          12 (1)          49 (5)          29 (2)
Suc. Take Ons        67 (4)          99 (5)          40 (3)          22 (1)          23 (2)
Chances Created        56 (4)          53 (3)          15 (1)          63 (5)          30 (2)
Tackles Won        30 (4)          14 (3)          5 (1)          46 (5)          10 (2)
Interceptions        21 (5)          13 (3)          4 (1)          17 (4)            5 (2)
Total Points        29          24          13          26          16

*Agüero has missed five games due to injury this season.

Although Alexis is only in his sixth month of his Arsenal career, the 26-year-old forward is already a fan favorite at the Emirates. With the combination of his goal-scoring ability, creating chances for his teammates, extremely high work rate, and seemingly being a great teammate in the dressing room, El Nino Maravilla (The Wonder Boy), as he is known in Chile, appears to be a complete package as a soccer player.