Before he picked up a knee injury in the first Arsenal match of pre-season that forced him to have surgery and miss perhaps the whole first half of the new season, it was being reported that the German centre back Per Mertesacker was going to be given the task of replacing Mikel Arteta as club captain.
He still might, I suppose, but I would expect the manager to change his mind and give it to one of the Gunners who is actually going to be able to help on the pitch. My initial thoughts were that the armband would go to Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey or Alexis Sanchez but for some reason I forgot about Santi Cazorla, but the Spaniard was given the honour of captaining the side that beat the Mexican club Chivas De Guadalajara in the second and final game of the mini tour of America.
Arsene Wenger is clearly considering the Spaniard and I have to say it might be the perfect choice. Cazorla is one of our best players for one thing, so he is likely to feature in all or most of our matches as long as he is fit. For another thing, he is vastly experienced, while at 31-years old is also at his prime and has plenty of time left in his playing career.
The main thing going for Cazorla to be our captain, however, is that his technical and creative abilities embodies what the Gunners under Wenger are all about. He is not just all about attack either, because in the last year or so the boss has been using him in a deeper lying central midfield role and Cazorla has proved very adept there, better than Arteta to be honest.
So has Wenger found the perfect Arsenal captain in Cazorla?
Bob.