Arsenal, like every other club in the English Premier League, benefitted by the sale of Luis Suárez by Liverpool to Barcelona. Suárez was clearly the best player in the EPL last season and nearly led Liverpool to the title in what was supposed to be a transition year for the Reds to merely return to relevance.

With the acquisition of Suárez, Barcelona would be forced to sell Alexis Sánchez and the 25-year-old Chilean clearly preferred a move to London to play for Arsenal over Merseyside, leading to a £30 million transfer. The valuation was undoubtedly low, particularly when strong World Cup performances typically result in an unjustified gold rush.

Arsenal has no shortage of attacking midfielders with world-class skill and this feels like a bit of duplication on a certain level, but they have been lacking a physical specimen with the strength and pace of Alexis. Is this move merely another example of Arsène Wenger continuing to fidget for improvement on the margins of Arsenal’s central identity, or does Alexis finally make the masterpiece complete?

Alexis can potentially play a central striker role in a similar way to how Wenger converted Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie, but it would be a makeshift solution at best. Arsenal has been linked to Luis Suárez, Mario Mandžukić, Mario Balotelli and Karim Benzema over the past year and yet will continue to trot out Olivier Giroud for far more minutes than his quality merits for a club with this level of resources. Alexis will be much better served playing wide with Giroud up front.

Arsenal also has yet to sign a defensive midfielder or an upgrade at centerback, which ultimately makes their entertaining and explosive brand of football a vulnerable echo of what has plagued them these past few seasons. Arsenal has looked remarkable against inferior or disinterested clubs, but those holes become magnified against good clubs and their record in those matches has been unacceptable.

Mikel Arteta is Arsenal’s new captain and the best option as their new holding midfielder, but he doesn’t have the legs at his age to play the role in the type of schedule Arsenal will play.

But Wenger is confident that Alexis changes the equation going forward in a way that makes Mesut Özil and Aaron Ramsey better. Özil is one of the most creative passers in the world and he will now be able to locate Alexis in space on the wing in ways he could for Real Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo but not last season with Arsenal.

The physicality and speed of Alexis is tremendous from the wing and his presence opens up space in the middle. Alexis had 19 goals last season for Barcelona, his best statistical output in which he was too often treated as a spare part to accommodate other, sometimes lesser talents.

Alexis was bought for £23 million in 2011 by Barcelona from Udinese amid interest from Chelsea and Manchester City as well. To sell him just as he enters prime for just a few million more pounds both shows the type of deal Arsenal is getting for a player of that caliber, as well as how Barcelona wasted his talent now that they’re with their fourth manager in four seasons.

Alexis had the fourth best scoring contribution in La Liga last season behind three of the world’s most expensive footballers in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale.

One underrated aspect of Alexis’ game is as a passer. At Udinese, he had to dribble his way to goal and at Barcelona that tilted to creativity within that very specific system. At Arsenal, Wenger will need a balance of both from him. 

The injury to Theo Walcott in January paved the way for Alexis and the crowd at attacking midfield will almost certainly necessitate a sale. Beyond Alexis, Özil, Ramsey and Walcott, Arsenal still has Jack Whilshire, Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Joel Campbell. 

Grade for Arsenal: A-

The timing of the move seems perfect for Alexis after a hugely successful World Cup for Chile. Alexis will turn 26 in December and now gets to play his absolute prime seasons as one of the two or three most critical players on an EPL club that plays a style of football that suits him with an eagerness to win meaningful hardware again and is finally ready to allocate its abundant resources to do so.

Messi is just a little bit older than Alexis and there would never be enough room for him to test his full potential, the type of central role he has for Chile, while being a supporting piece at Barcelona.

Grade for Alexis: A