In the first of these new Arsenal player spotlight posts I looked at the improvement of a player that looked to be on his way out of the club in Joel Campbell. For the second I am going to look at one of the most heavily praised in the current squad, Hector Bellerin, who appears to have hit a sticky patch in recent weeks.
Perhaps it is simply fatigue, because the young Spaniard has started and completed all 13 Premier League games for the Gunners this season and has played three of the five Champions League games as well. He does have an all action style as well, so after seeing the likes of Santi Cazorla, Alexis and Coquelin picking up injuries which might have been avoided by resting them, maybe the boss should consider giving him a game off.
I am not trying to be too hard on Bellerin here because it is not as if he has been rubbish, just that he has dropped from his very high standards and is not having the same influence on games as he was. We do have the France international Mathieu Debuchy desperate to play as well so rotating the right backs is not too much of a risk, especially against the struggling Aston Villa this weekend.
As well as giving him a well earned rest, this element of competition might just spark Bellerin back into top form again. What do you think of Bellerin in general, his recent form and the idea of giving Debuchy a chance?