Yet again the £33 million Chilean baled his team out – this time with a winner a minute from time against Southampton, his 14th of the season.
It came after yet another display in which Arsenal made hard work of it. Too hard against an injury ravaged Southampton side.
Wenger said of the Chilean: “Alexis has such desire to fight and find something special to get the goal. We are in December, he arrived in July. When you look at the goals and the impact he has had on the team, it is tremendous.”
This was Arsenal’s third win in a row.
Their third clean sheet and their second Premier League success in as many matches.
So it is little wonder that Arsene Wenger is so indebted to Sanchez, the man who just cannot stop scoring since his joining from Barcelona in the summer.
The shirt is suddenly weighing a bit too heavily on the shoulders on Danny Welbeck. Olivier Giroud isn’t yet at it after his injury and Aaron Ramsey is still nowhere near his goalscoring heights of last season.
It was Welbeck first who was worried out of an eighth-minute chance by Fraser Forster.
The England striker also saw his international team-mate claw his 68th-minute effort off the line one-handed, to the incredulity of the entire stadium.
Forster, who also kept out Alex Oxlade Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey, pulled off yet another brilliant save just a minute before the goal, somehow forcing a header from Olivier Giroud past the far post.
It looked, quite simply, as though it was not going to be Arsenal’s night. As though a Southampton side with the best defensive record in the Premier League was going to claim the Gunners as another of their victims.