Although Arsenal were not at our flowing and fluent best away to Crystal Palace on Saturday, we did manage to hold on for the winner and there were some impressive performances from the battling Gunners. I personally would have given the Man of the Match award to Santi Cazorla, although I can see why our own KJ gave it to Welbeck and others like the Daily Mail gave it to Olivier Giroud.
But Cazorla was once again a strong contender and showed us once again that there are so many aspects to his game. Arsene Wenger started the Spaniard in an unfamiliar ddeper position in central midfield. That would have set the alarm bells ringing in either of his first two seasons with Arsenal but not I am not sure if there is anything Cazorla can´t do on a football pitch.
After his amazing game away to Man City when he fought, pressed, harried and generally made himself a proper nuisance to the home side, Wenger clearly has no problem asking Santi to add the dirty work to his great technical ability and creative talent.
Check these Santi stats out from Satuday: 4/4 tackles won, 4 clearances, more touches and passes than any other Gunner and just one foul given away but three won. The really amazing stat for the 30-year old was the fact his 10.4 kilometres covered in the game was the third best, just bettered by Calum Chambers and Jordan Mutch.
So is Cazorla better than ever now for Arsenal? And what will Wenger ask him to do next, DM?