Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) vs Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
The arrival of Alexis Sanchez to Arsenal was something that brought plenty of joy to thier fans. For his signing meant that the club finally have a world class winger, something they haven’t enjoyed in the recent. Already this season, Sanchez has shown just how good he is. Since opening his Arsenal account in the Champions League, the Chilean attacker has scored some crucial goals for the Gunners.
In the first few games, all the talk was about Fabregas and Diego Costa and not much attention was focused on Eden Hazard. After a disappointing World Cup, Hazard didn’t have the greatest of starts to the current season, with some sections of the fans even questioning his automatic selection in the team. But over the past few weeks, the reigning PFA Young Player of the Year has shown that class is permanent.
So how have these two nimble-footed wingers gone on this season? Has Sanchez made a better start than Hazard? Who has contributed more to their team and who has been better of the two, so far this season.
Offensive contribution of both Hazard and Alexis this season in the Premier League
| Eden Hazard | Alexis Sanchez | |
| Total appearances | 9 | 8 |
| Goals/assists | 2/1 | 5/2 |
| Chances created | 18 | 18 |
| Shot accuracy | 67 | 67 |
| Pass completion | 91 | 78 |
| Dribbles per game | 5.3 | 2.6 |
In terms of sheer productivity and contribution to the attack, there is clearly just one winner. Although Sanchez has appeared in one game fewer than Hazard, he has still managed to score and create more goals than the Belgian attacker. Not only that his goals have come at crucial intervals to the Gunners, who are already indebted to the 25-year-old for ensuring that they have as many points as they do now.
While in terms of chances created, it is pretty even as both players have created 18 chances so far in the Premier League, Hazard averages more key passes per game, but even that is just by a very slight margin. And one of the reasons why the 23-year-old’s numbers are comparatively low was because of the fact that Chelsea have been playing more direct this season and with the form of Fabregas and Costa, most of the attack has been through the middle.
HazardAnother aspect that is evident from the stats is their style of play. Hazard is the type of player who likes to take on defenders and beats them, while Sanchez, who is just as capable, tends to make the most of the players around him. And you can certainly see that in terms of the dribbles per game as the Belgian averages more than twice the number of dribbles as Sanchez does.
For all of his goals, if there is one thing that Sanchez needs to concentrate more on, is his passing. While a pass completion of 78 isn’t bad, it isn’t of the standard that is expected at Arsenal and while his productivity has compensated for that, the Chilean can’t rely on being able to score or assist in almost every game. In this regard, Hazard, thanks to the better quality of players around him and also with the advantage of having already played in the League, has a much better pass completion rate.
In attack, both players have been pretty evenly matched and Sanchez only slightly shades it, in terms of who has been the better performer. But if there is another aspect of their game in which there is clearly only one winner, it is their tendency to track back and help out in defence.
The 25-year-old’s tenacity and pressing has already resulted in a few goals for Arsenal this season and it is no surprise to see him leading in terms of the number of tackles committed. In fact, his 14 tackles ranks fourth amongst Arsenal players this season. Somewhat surprisingly, the duo have made the same number of interceptions.
While both players have undoubtedly had great starts to the season, the Chilean has adapted to the Premier League pretty quickly and has shown that he can not only score goals, but create as well, which bodes well for the Gunners as the season wears on.
Alexis Sanchez vs Eden Hazard Verdict:
It’s clearly too early to conclude the winner of this battle of two wonderfully talented World class players. But considering what we have seen so far this season, Alexis Sanchez has the edge when it comes to goal and assists /game ratio.