Scary reading for Arsenal fans while it also proves just how good Chelsea are...
There is no doubt that the three men leading the Premier League goal scoring charts are the most important players in their respective sides. Manchester City's Sergio Aguero (12 goals), Chelsea's Diego Costa (10) and Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez (8) have all been focal points, game savers and game changers for their teams in the early weeks of the Premier League.
But, which one has been most important to their side? We decided to subtract their goals from their respective teams to see where that would leave them. It makes for interesting reading and if we were Manuel Pellegrini or Arsene Wenger we'd be buying an industrial size roll of cotton roll.
First we looked at Aguero. Take a dozen goals from any team and they would struggle but how many points would City have without him?
City would have lost to Arsenal, rather than getting a 2-2 draw thanks to his goal and they would have also lost to, rather than beating, Spurs without his fantastic four against them.
Take away his winner against Manchester United and his brace that salvaged a point at QPR and you have a seven-point drop in City's total, leaving last year's champions in 13th place.
Next up is Diego Costa. Taking to the Premier League like a big Brazilian/Spanish fish to water, Martin Skrtel was just the latest victim of his muscular brand of goal scoring brilliance. But his impact on Chelsea's point total, and subsequent league position, is much smaller than you might think.
Because Chelsea have been tonking teams and scoring lots from all sorts of players, Costa's goals only materially affected two games. His hat-trick against QPR turned zero points into three while his goal against Liverpool at the weekend turned one into three.
Just five points would be off Chelsea's haul, meaning they would slip to second, a point behind Southampton as it stands.
Finally, it is the turn of Arsenal's main man Alexis Sanchez. How would the Gunners be faring without their brand new Chilean star? The answer is pretty terrible.
Sanchez' goals earned Arsenal draws at Manchester City, Leicester and Hull, while his goals at Sunderland earned Arsenal three instead of one point. That adds up to a five-point swing, dropping Arsene Wenger's side from the relative comfort of sixth to the lowly slot of 14th.
Of course, we know that all three of these players contribute much more to their teams than just goals, though only Sanchez, with two, has any assists in the league.
But goals are the essential building blocks of success and while Chelsea's foundations seem rock solid, you'd have to fear for either Arsenal or City troubling the top four if they lost their main men for a significant spell of the year, based on this analysis.
