Arsenal were enjoying a good season until their recent hiccups but they could return to form with a win over West Brom on Boxing Day. So far in their season there has arguably been only one candidate for the Gunner’s player of the season and that player for most people has to be Alexis Sanchez.

Chilean superstar Alexis Sanchez has changed to centre-forward this season after Arsene Wenger asked him to move there for the good of the team and the results have been impressive to say the least. Sanchez recently won the League game against West Ham on his own with a 14 minute second-half hat-trick. Alexis has had a hand in 18 goals in his 17 Premier League appearances so far for Arsenal this season scoring 12 goals and adding a tasty 6 assists too that is already 1 more than he managed in 30 league appearances last season when he had scored 13 goals and added 4 assists. So it is hard to argue that Sanchez has been incredibly influential this season.

The other candidate we propose for Arsenal’s player of the season so far may surprise some but if you look at the way he has acclimatised to the Premier League and solidified Arsenal’s defense then you have to consider centre-half Shkodran Mustafi. The German international joined Arsenal at the end of the summer transfer window for a reported fee of £35 million from Valencia. As we mentioned he has solidified the centre of the Arsenal defense and formed debatably the best central defensive partnership in the Premier League with Laurent Koscielny. If you want to see how important Mustafi has become to Arsenal then you only need to realise that since he has been out with his hamstring strain sustained vs Stoke City they have lost their past 2 games so it likely is not a coincidence that the club has lost form since the rock-solid German has been sidelined plus they lost to Liverpool when he did not play.

Whichever way you look at it Arsenal clearly need Alexis Sanchez to maintain his scintillating form and to avoid injury plus they need to get the most impressive new signing Shkodran Mustafi back fit as soon as possible. If they are to continue their pursuit of the 2 biggest prizes they are currently going after – the Premier League and the Champions League – then they definitely need both Sanchez and Mustafi at their best.