It is impossible to say just yet, as there are still 11 games for Arsenal to play in the Premier League, but so far it looks like our Spanish midfield maestro Santi Cazorla is in with a chance of getting the PFA PLayer of the Year award this season.
Cazorla had a slightly sluggish start to the season but it did not take him too long to find his form again and since he has, the 30-year old has been better than ever. His all-action performance away to Man City had everything and showed a defensive side and a desire that we had not identified with him before.
So Arsene Wenger has now started trusting Santi in a Ramsey-style central midfield role. The Spaniard has spoken before about how the manager’s trust has really helped him and it is certainly paying off this year as Cazorla has won the last two PFA Player of the Month awards, but can he keep going and win the annual prize?
I think so, but I think he could do with a little break this week to get over the heavy recent run of fixtures to give his batteries a little boost. After that, Cazorla can go again, and I think the Arsenal boss should be talking up the PFA award to inspire him to extra efforts. That is what the Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers did about Coutinho this week, but when you look at the stats comparison on Squawka.com, with Man City’s David Silva thrown in for good measure, the Arsenal man is way ahead of Coutinho.
His overall score of 40.99 is way above Coutinho’s of 24.38 and Silva’s of 27.1. Cazorla also comes top in general attack, defence and possession scores. Silva just edges him out in a few factors like goals scored and chances created but I think that Cazorla’s new deeper lying role can explain that.
So can Santi push on and win the PFA award this season?