Can Alexis Sánchez claim the Golden Boot to cap-off a wonderful Fantasy Premier League campaign?

The race for the Golden boot is set to go to the wire, so it’s perhaps fitting that 2 of the leading contenders – Romelu Lukaka and Alexis Sánchez will be in direct opposition at the Emirates on Sunday.

Everton’s Belgium striker has a 1 goal advantage over the Arsenal man, while Harry Kane, who will be action for Spurs against Leicester City on Thursday evening and against Hull City on the final day, is a further goal adrift. Kane, incidentally, may count himself a touch unfortunate not to be ahead of his rivals, since he has missed a good chunk of the season through injury.

However, Sánchez is arguably the fantasy player of the season. He has featured in every Premier League game for Arsenal and has been directly involved in 33 of the 74 goals that the Gunners have scored during the course of the campaign, marking him out as ‘captain material’ on a weekly basis.

He has accumulated 40 points more than his nearest rival in the Official Fantasy Premier League game and has completed 90 minutes in 10 of his last 11 appearances which is music to a fantasy manager’s ears!

His versatility is one of his major assets, with his 2 close range efforts against Sunderland on Tuesday, highlighting the predatory instincts that were harnessed earlier on in the season, when injuries to Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck saw him being deployed in the number 9 role, a position he has occupied in 24 of his 45 appearances in all competitions according to WhoScored.

Arsenal still have an outside chance of claiming one of those Champions League spots and their resurgence in form has coincided with Arsene Wenger finally seeing sense and showing a bit of flexibility with his playing formation. The Gunners have won 6 of their 7 matches since the the stubborn Frenchman switched to a 3-4-2-1 set-up and it has breathed new life into Sánchez, who has featured as one of the 2 advanced midfielders.

Sánchez is classified as a midfielder in many fantasy football game formats, so it will be fascinating to see if the same categorization will apply next season – assuming he stays in the Premier League of course!

There has been plenty of speculation about the future of both Wenger and the Chilean international but both of them will at least get the chance to go out in blaze of glory, should they decide to move on, with a top-four finish, the Golden Boot and the small matter of an FA Cup final still on the agenda.

All eyes will be on Sánchez on Sunday, as he attempts to overtake Lukaku in the Golden Boot standings – don’t bet against him doing it!