What Can Arsenal Realistically Expect from Alexis Sanchez This Season?

In what has thus far been a season of disappointment for Arsenal, Alexis Sanchez has been one of the team's lone bright spots.

Alexis, as he likes to be known, is this year's Mesut Ozil: a marquee signing from an elite club who electrified the fanbase upon his arrival.

Unlike Ozil, Alexis arrived early in the summer and, but for his post-World Cup recovery, had an entire preseason to bed in with his teammates.

Also unlike his predecessor, he has been an immediate success.

Lauded for his energy at Barcelona, Alexis seems to have entered his first season utterly set on proving he will never stop moving.

He is omnipresent on whichever flank on which he plays, both in defense and attack. He constantly seeks to get involved in the play when Arsenal go forward and immediately sprints to track back when the Gunners lose the ball.

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Alexis is certainly not the only player in the world with this kind of drive and extraordinary pugnacity. But his marriage of peculiar stamina and grit with superb technical quality makes him a world-class player.

He is the sort of X-factor Arsenal otherwise lack. Because he is a complete player, he makes up for what Theo Walcott lacks in defensive skill, Ozil's general malaise and the rest of the forward line's frequent inability to finish.

That is a steal for a little more than £30 million.

His price does not matter now, of course, as he is already (and unbelievably) a Gunner. Though many players (read: Ozil) struggle during their first season in the Premier League, there seems little chance, based on the evidence we have, that Alexis will suffer such tribulations.

There will be periodic and brief dips in form, of course, but Alexis is not the same sort of player as Ozil or, to use an old but archetypal example, Robert Pires.

The two latter men had a much less robust physical constitution and approached the game in the sort of detached, calculating way in which Arsene Wenger manages.

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Not so with Alexis. He is so obviously hungry to win and get the ball at his feet to personally ensure that his side gets three points that he never stops running around the pitch attempting to get himself involved.

Expect a goal glut, as well. He has already scored two candidates for Arsenal's goal of the season: a sublime first-time volley at Manchester City and an inch-perfect free-kick in the Capital One Cup against Southampton.

Though Alexis no longer has the best players in the world supporting and creating chances for him as he did at Barcelona, his teammates are still good enough to set him up. And he himself is so feisty and technically skilled that he can create his own chances.

Don't expect to see Alexis playing as a striker much, though. Danny Welbeck has started nearly every game since his arrival, indicating that Wenger has much more faith in a traditional center forward than Alexis, who is short for a lone striker.

All this toil must surely take a toll on his body at some point throughout the season. This is Arsenal, after all, and every star player must spend time on the sidelines at least once during any given season.

If Alexis does not actually suffer an injury, his form will likely dip around mid-January to mid-February, when the brutality of the New Year period really takes a toll on weary players in the Premier League.

This is arguably the hardest part of the transition to England for most players, as their bodies are simply tuned to a certain schedule.

Wenger will probably refuse to bench him (because he almost never rotates his stars and many other important players will probably be out anyway), which will take a further toll on Alexis' performances.

But after either a minor injury or the manager coming to his senses, Alexis is bound to catch a second wind, and—forget Ozil—he will be the catalyst for Arsenal's push for the title.

Oh, sorry. I meant fourth place.

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