Santi Cazorla: Alexis Sanchez is enjoying life at Arsenal out of Lionel Messi's Barcelona shadow

Arsenal star Santi Cazorla believes Alexis Sanchez is enjoying football more than ever since arriving at the Emirates, after being previously overshadowed by Lionel Messi at Barcelona.

The Chile international scored 19 goals in his last season at the Nou Camp but did not get a chance to show his full potential due to the presence of both Lionel Messi and Neymar in the Catalan giants' first XI.

The current Champions League winners parted ways with Sanchez to free up room for the arrival of Luis Suarez from Liverpool. Arsene Wenger took advantage of this to make him the marquee Arsenal signing of summer 2014.

Sanchez wasted little time adapting to the Premier League, scoring 25 goals and providing 12 assists in his first season.

"I think we have now seen the great player he is because at Barcelona he played in the shadow of Lionel Messi," Cazorla said in an interview with Fox Sport.

"Here he feels very good. He feels that he is the reference of the team. He is very happy and hopefully he can maintain this level next season."

The Spaniard has also hailed the impressive debut campaign of David Ospina, even though some have claimed Wenger must sign a world class goalkeeper during the mercato.

"If you see his stats I think he has been the best goalkeeper in the Premier League since he arrived. He is a great keeper. He has made made incredible saves during the season. He has given us tremendous security and hopefully next year we will remain strong between the sticks," Cazorla claimed.

Cazorla also said the Gunners had improved over the course of the last campaign and hoped that they can continue this increase to take them to a level where they can fight for the title this year.

"We are very excited about the next season. Last year we wanted to take a little step forward to fight for the Premier League and go further in the Champions League," he said.

"We were able to fight with big teams like Manchester City, finished ahead of United, won the FA Cup and got the straight direct for the Champions League. I hope next season we finish even higher."