Sanchez is Arsenal's MVP and club legend, Lauren says the Gunners must keep him
Alexis Sanchez is emerging as the most valuable player in the Premier League.
Statistics show just how important the striker is to The Gunners, who are facing a demand from the player for £250,000 a week to renew his contract.
Invincibles hero, Lauren says Sanchez must not be sold and says he reminds him of former teammate, Thierry Henry with his burning desire and will to win.
Sanchez assists or nets more regularly than any other player in the Premier League. Incredibly, the Chilean nets or assists every 85 minutes with the next best being Chelsea striker, Diego Costa, whose ratio is a chance of goal every 88 minutes.
That will only help Sanchez’s contract negotiations in which Arsenal have so far offered Sanchez £180,000-a-week.
He has 18 months left on his current contract, but Lauren, the brilliant right back of Arsenal’s invincibles of 2004, says Arsenal simply cannot let Sanchez or Mesut Ozil go if they want to win major trophies.
Lauren, now an Arsenal ambassador, told Mirror Sport: “If you watch him, he plays every game like it’s his last game. He runs at defenders, he’s always looking for space behind defences, he comes deep to get the ball, he always gives 100 per cent. He’s so committed.
“This is why we need him at Arsenal, he’s been brilliant. People say the manager makes the difference with players but sometimes it’s the players. Sanchez has the same level of commitment in every game that he plays.
“They must keep Sanchez and Ozil. We’ve seen over the years that there was a point where they had to sell van Persie, Adebayor and Fabregas. But if they keep those two players, with the addition of a couple more, the team will be very strong.
“The team has been built slowly, slowly. They are progressing and it’s so well. So it’s vital that they keep the best players now.
“What happened to Thierry Henry was that he wanted to be the best player every single day of his life. In training, the FA Cup, Premier League, League Cup and Champions League.
“You can see the same parallel with Alexis, definitely. You can see some leaders in that way. Definitely Alexis is one of them. He never gives up.”
Lauren enjoyed glorious days at Arsenal, winning trophies and titles and believes that Wenger remains the manager to bring more success to the club.
But Laurent is also convinced that the club can still win the Premier League title this season as he sees a winning mentality in the squad.
Lauren said: “When people talk about the Arsenal way, who brought that to the club? It was Wenger. To replace that is going to be difficult.
“You would have to change the whole philosophy to do that. They have to talk about it within the club to do it. If Arsene Wenger leaves, the club would have to go in a completely different direction.
“To change the manager would change the whole concept of whole club. You would have to try and become like Real Madrid, spend £500m and buy every single player. If you stick with the same idea then Wenger is the man. He has achieved so much.
“This was always going to be one of the most entertaining title races for years, it’s a different collection of coaches, big players and concepts. You won’t see a team run away with it by 12 points.
“Chelsea did not win last week and now everything is close, very tight and I think it will stay like that for the rest of the season.
“I think Arsenal have got more players, more options from the bench. You see Perez coming on to make a difference. Iwobi has also come in and scored and played well. There’s more players who can come and share the responsibility.
“There’s about six or seven players who can make the difference. The team is more mature now. They have played several years together, they are stronger and I think you saw at Bournemouth as well that they are stronger mentally as well.
“Compared to Chelsea and Liverpool, Arsenal have a better team. But they must be consistent and if they can do that, then, they have a very, very big chance to win the title. You need luck with injuries because that was a killer two years ago.
“Their resilience is a real positive. They were losing 3-0 at Bournemouth but still managed to get back. We haven’t seen that for many years. It’s another good sign that the team believe in what they are doing.”
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