Why Cazorla blow could be the end of Arsenal title hopes

Arsenal fans that have been following the fortunes of the club for a few years might not be too surprised to hear about the setback suffered by Santi Cazorla on his road to recovery, but I do think that we should be extremely worried about it, especially if The Mirror is right with their suggestion that his new Achilles problems could mean that Arsene Wenger has to do without the Spaniard for the rest of the season.

The boss does have options and the first choice among them at the minute is Aaron Ramsey, but while the Welsh international continues to struggle for goals, with just six from 32 games so far, he does not have the same impact on the game as the little magician.

You can see just what Santi brings to the table for Arsenal from the Premier League creative stats table on Squawka.com.

Of the top 100 players on that list, Cazorla is one of only 11 with over 1000 completed passes, the others being Ozil, Ramsey, Barkley, Mata, Fabregas, Sagna, M’Vila, Toure, Drinkwater and Mark Noble. But they have all played a lot more EPL minutes than the Spaniard. Most have played around twice as much so the fact that he is still right up there with his stats shows just how well he was doing for us before the knee injury in November.

Of course we have Mesut Ozil and he is having a fine season but without Cazorla it is easier for teams to focus on stopping the German and thus stopping Arsenal. With our midfield maestro on the pitch the Gunners have another massive creative option, which you can see from the stats on key passes.

Santi has 33 from his 1203 minutes and that is more than Ramsey after nearly twice the amount of game time and the same is true of Mahrez and all of the other top creators bar Fabregas, Mata and Barkley. Is it any wonder that Arsenal have been struggling to cope without Cazorla?

And will his delayed return spell the end of the Arsenal title challenge?

Tags Ozil Ramsey

24 Comments

  1. its been the same for a decade…

    youd think we would be used to this bulls*** by now

    but no, we still live in vain lol

  2. When all you guys calm
    down you will realize
    it’s too early to give up
    and throw tantrums.
    Nothing changed overnight.
    Placings remain the same.
    Just one less game to play that’s all.
    The NLD takes on massive significance now.
    How critical? We will find out Saturday.
    If Spurs win and Leicester win Arsenal will
    fall nine points off the pace, title chase over.
    But if Arsenal win and Leicester lose
    Arsenal will be just 3 points off the lead = with Spuds.
    Losing Cech and Kos is a huge blow so if ever we need
    a heroic season changing performance it is right now.
    Can we do it. Yes of course we can 🙂

    1. Respect bro, I was thinking/hoping the same thing!!

      Hopefully Sanchez bags a hattrick and Ozil gets a couple of assists COYG

  3. That’s not fair to lump all our players together like that we actually have a lot of fighters on the team who are always drained from giving it there all.

    And if we **** this season up and don’t win the prem I see wenger stepping down or splashing big in the summer

    1. We have not played well all season but Wenger persist with his set ways by playing 4-2-4 .
      The arrogance alone is insulting to other teams .
      Remove Ozil and Sanchez and the rest of the squad would not be able to win promotion out of the championship .
      The brilliance of cazorla ensured that we won most of our games but since he got injured , it has been downhill .
      That is a run of many games yet Wenger persist with the useless formation .
      Does it take an injury to one of his favourite to rejig the team.

      We need a change of formation .
      Ramsey and Giroud needs to be dropped

  4. For starters this is what Cazorla posted after reading about his own setback news. … Which the deluded & utterly clueless Wenger reported!

    Surprised by the piece of news appeared in press, deadlines are going as planned. I will be ready on 1st April. #workinghard

    — Santi Cazorla (@19SCazorla) March 2, 2016

  5. If aanyone still thinks we deserve to win the league they are just idiots. Leicester show so much passion that even I want them to win the league. Our players have zero backbone and are just in the wenger mentality. All wenger does each match is criticize refs, and never blames himself or the players.

    Wont be surprised if we go out of top 4.

    1. Dude ozil was fouled and we were robbed that should be called 10/10 times and we hit the post 3 times.

      This defeat hard and I mean really hard to swallow but today we didn’t get the luck we needed

      1. Luck is what you make. 10 years all wenger and fans have done is blame refs and downplay other teams. Have we or wenger ever said, ohh ya other team is better and we need to improve” No he has not and we follow his path of teaching.

        Yes that may be a foul but does that mean our players stop playing. What were our defenders doing giving swansea attacker this much space and time. Its called school boy error. I know many hate sir alex but I know what he would have said, he would have equally blasted his players because he has done that and then he might blame refs but first he would try to man up his players. Wenger does opposite, he thinks his team is somewhat the best and deserve to win every competition. Let us stop speaking his language.

        1. I get what your saying I really do, Ramsey shoulda grabbed and fouled cork(?) instead of letting him get away. But also I think the foul looked so blatanly obvious the players stopped cause it SHOULDVE been awarded.

          But your right that is not wenger’s style as a coach and maybe that is why we need a change. What I don’t understand is why isn’t bould out there yelling and motivating if wenger doesn’t?

  6. The quality of football from Arsenal is going down. You don’t see many triangles these days, you know the ones Lee Dixon used to talk of when he was still on BBC Match of the day. When playmakers are on the ball, some of the others are either not moving, or are moving too far away from the ball whilst calling for the perfect pass. That is really difficult for the player in possession.

    Joel can make things happen for himself and other players on top of that his work rate, that makes him better than Theo. Theo and Giroud are service player, they wait in a area for the perfect pass, they can’t create their own chances.

    1. That’s why they should either accept their roles as bench players or be sold. We need forwards who can create their own magic, it makes the job easier for the midfielders and ultimately more difficult for the opponent to stop us.

  7. I find Wenger ‘ s decision to take off Joel Campbell and replace him with theo Walcott to be considered a criminal act!

    1. he replaced him with welbeck but i get what your saying. wenger claims he was tired but i didnt see it, usually you can tell when joel is gassed but today looked like he had another 10+ minutes to give

  8. The Boss has a huge problem in his hands to solve before the Gunners can be hopeful of beating Spurs on Saturday.

    The porous Gunners defence-line MUST urgently be patched up as they’ve led in 7 goals in their last 3 outings in all competitions.

    And 2ndly, the Gunners assault-line MUST be resuffled to make them become potent against the Spurs defense-line that hardly led in goals.

    My starts for the Spurs game:
    Ospina.
    BellerinChambersDeAberuGibbs.
    ElnenyFlamini.
    IwobiOzilCampbell.
    Welbeck.
    My bench:
    MaceyRhino’MonrealCoquelinRamseySanchezWalcott.

    The Boss has got to agree with me to do this massive overhaul changes to give a new impetus and belief to the above starts&bench of mine to successfully do the job at White Hart Lane.

    The Boss should for now allow Rhino’MonrealCoquelinRamseyWelbeckGiroudand Sanchez to rest from starting the Spurs game because they’ve gone stale and have become goals scoring shy. The 7 of them should start the FA Cup replay at Hull to see before the Boss selects the Barca team.

  9. Wenger has to go, he really has to go. I know it sounds redundant because he’s not going anywhere but we the fans have to make him go, he won’t go on his own accord. WHO would leave a 8 million/yr job just because? NO-ONE!

    I coach a bunch of U9 and i can even tell you which line up would be our strongest! Yet, this manager with 30 years experience in world football keeps picking players he wants in the Euros at our expense. Players like Walcott, Giroud, Ramsay and Ox should not be used but players with no Euro aspirations are benched (Campbell, Elneny, Iwobi)

    This is a complete joke, fans pay top dollars to see the best IN FORM players, not just because of politics and who you want to represent you in a tournament.

    Wenger has to go!

  10. Chambers has to play alongside BFG
    Monreal and Bellerin are brilliant
    Coq/Iwobi/Ozil and sanchez in the midfield
    2 strikers!!! Giroud and campbell.

    We need to play with 2 strikers
    Diamond midfield
    Four at the back.

    It’s not rocket science.

  11. Ok I’m by no means defending our performances of late but after a few days of deep thoughts I realized that Man Utd ACTUALLY had a good squad against us, what blinded our rationality at the time was hearing how it’s their B team or academy players. If you look back at their starting lineup up though you’ll realize that most of those players were or are full internationals for their countries.

    De Gea – Spain
    Blind – Holland
    Rojo – Argentina
    Carrick – England
    Herrera – Spain
    Schneiderlin – France
    Depay – Holland
    Mara – Spain

    That’s 8 of the 11 that are international players. Bar the 15 that were reported out injured what does that say about their depth? Even though LVG blew through £200M they still managed to embarrassed us. Simply because of the season they were having that’s what truly made that lost hurt.

    Now to the Swansea match I’m completely lost for words, but what’s obvious is both the manager and players have to take responsibility for that shocker. I hear fans say I won’t blame Özil and Alexis if they leave but aren’t they apart of the team and should shoulder the burden as well? Being brutally honest here his 18 assists aside Özil should have been stronger on that 50/50 that lead to their equalizer and the defense totally shut off without even playing to the whistle. Alexis has been more of a hindrance since he came back from injury because he over does everything and fail to make a lot of simple passes, regardless if he got an assist today. We’ve cried out for Gabriel and he’s been shocking and I would rather go with Chambers especially after the shift he put in against Leceister not too long ago. What a loss Cazorla is and here we thought Coquelin’s absence was bigger, I just hope the Isco rumors are true regarding Ramsey and why the F**K did we get Elneny then? We obviously knew we needed someone better than Giroud and I wouldn’t lose any sleep if Walcott never plays again for the rest of the season. Can someone please tell me what in the hell has Campbell done wrong to merit his treatment? Even though Koss is out he has some heavy touches and very often over hits his passes if you watch closely and you can now add him to the 30 and over club. Cech out and Ospina in at White Hart Lane is very scary to me, because 1 thing Spurs now how to do this season is find the net, just take a quick glance at their goal difference and see for yourself. I asked this question after the Man U game and I’ll ask it again. Where do we go from here???

    1. MU’s CB comprised of Carrick and Blind ffs, YES I repeat a 35 year old midfielder and a LB turned CB and their number 9 was a 18 year old kid, not Rooney of his prime. Do you seriously think we will get a better chance to trounce them at Old trafford. Going my rumors , jose is going there and best of luck to wenger and arsenal of beating them let alone thrashing them.

  12. How many times have we heard the story before ? Injury to a key player ends our ability to play consistently ultimately making us unable to challenge for the PL. This has been happening over and over again but the manager refuses to address the issue by bringing in quality back-up because of his loyalty to players that are either too, old, always injured or simply too average.

  13. This must be an old Article, because our title hopes are already dead and the burial will take place at WHL on Saturday, early afternoon.

    I have to laugh at those fans who believe that we can still win the league ???
    Come on man!… That’s like watching the same old movie, over and over again and expecting the ending to be different from the last time you watched it.
    I’m sure that many fan’s ( like, myself ) knew that this was coming, even when we were sitting on top of the league.

    Even back then, the signs were there, when we missed many opportunities to go top before we actually did and that trend just kept repeating itself, as we slowly started sinking down the table… and that sinking will carry on until we drop down to 5th or 6th and only then will we see a fighting spirit from Arsenal, as they rally to reclaim the Wenger trophy in glorious style on the last day of the season.

  14. It wouldn`t make any difference to the end result if Carzola were fit play next week, both his and Arsenal`s season is over. I now refer to Wenger as “the grey ghost”. I have supported him, like many others have for many a year. I`ve tried to understand him, I`ve forgiven him and trusted him but I`ve decided the man has one major fault : He thinks he is immortal.
    Well let me tell you Arsene you are not. Arsenal has given you too much power and made you multimillionaire but you have lost respect. You could have gone out with a fanfare now it will be with muffled drums.

  15. Point for debate not argument…..only my opinion. Assuming Wenger stays (most likely)
    Players: Ramsey (sell, he`s running around in circles) Ozil/Sanchez (keep, although I think they could ask to be released). Giroud ( sell, he will never improve…replace). Bellerin and Monreal (hopefully will survive Wenger…keep) . Mertesacker (too slow and in active , sell). Walcott (on your bike, you`ve had your day at Arsenal). Flamini (need I say more?). Ox(new pastures for him). Arteta (retire). Gibbs(another club). Rosicky (my favourite…retire my friend).
    We now need a striker who plays in the same league as Ozil and Sanchez.

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