I miss you Santi Cazorla by Sylvester
Today, I remember one of the best attacking midfielders to have ever played For Arsenal, Santi Cazorla. What a genius we had on our hands then. Good with the ball at both feet and good at scoring from set pieces. What a player indeed!
Santi Cazorla spent six years with Arsenal, making 180 appearances, scoring 29 goals and providing 45 assists. More than just goals and assists, he provided a huge amount of stability in possession and progressive play from midfield. Unai Emery’s team could probably still use him today, especially now that our creative midfielders seem to lack ideas on how to create goal scoring chances. Most Gunners fans probably remember the player most for his smile and his free-kick goal to spark the 2014 FA Cup final comeback resulting in the club’s first trophy in almost nine years.
“When you are at a big club like Arsenal, sometimes you don’t realise what it means to be there until you are gone,” he said in the Independent. “I never got to say a proper goodbye. It was the biggest team I played for in my career and I miss everything about Arsenal. I don’t know what my legacy is there, you would have to ask the fans, but I want to say thank you to them all. I would like to play at the Emirates one last time before I retire.
“I don’t know what I will do afterwards – maybe a coach, maybe a sporting director – but I would love to go back to Arsenal. I lived in London for six years. My son loved it there. In the future, we will see if I have the possibility.”
When Cazorla was sold to Villarreal in 2018, a lot of Arsenal fans were very sad to see him leave. He had controlled our midfield for such a long and enjoyable time that his departure was being felt, even before the season started, in 2018. We still had Mesut Ozil in the team then, but nobody really thought that Cazorla was not going to be missed when he left. In fact, he has been greatly missed.
Over the weekend, Santi Cazorla scored a wonderful goal for Spain and that goal got me thinking about the possibility of Cazorla putting on the Arsenal jersey once again, and if the quotes in the Independent regarding Cazorla thinking of returning to Arsenal someday are to be believed, then I will start hoping and wishing for the day he would return to Arsenal in any capacity.
Anyway, enjoy the Video of his comeback game and watch him scoring for Spain again at 34 years of age.
Sylvester
He was a great playmaker and still looks good today, but I don’t think he can cope with EPL intensity next season
Besides, we still have Ceballos that can play as a deep-lying playmaker, a box-to-box midfielder or a no 10
poor coaching aside, is there anything in ceballos’ performances that suggest that he may one day grow and improve his game to be as influential in the middle of the park as Santi the great once was?
@gotanidea
Ceballos is too timid for the EPL. To be honest, he doesn’t improve our side in any way…
Ceballos definitely improves us over last season
I’d take Santi back in a heartbeat as Ceballos hasn’t impressed one iota.
@gotanidea
I am of the opinion Ceballos is not really suited for Premier league. But he is a skillful player. And unfortunately, Emery don’t seem to be apt at knowing how to use his player well to much effectiveness.
If Cazola is good enough to play for Spain and score he seem to still have it in him. But next season he will be growing old.(35)
A class act.
Ooooooo Santi Cazorla! Ooooo Santi Cazorla! Etcetera..etc..
The only player arsenal had that could play with both feet brought so much to our game on and off the field miss him so much
Always astounds me that all professional footballers aren’t equally adept in both feet.id like £200 grand a week to be able to use one foot.what do they do all the time, play PS4?
Guess that’s why they are called footballers and not feetballers!;)
Hope and wish Santi is back at Emirates to dictate the midfield play. Can never forget his free kick that started the comeback in the FA cup final. Sad we could never replace him the real sense.
if Arsenal wants top class midfielder its the very best chance Arsenal have right now to land one of the best. its like mana from heaven. and if we you listen to me send me ticket to come and watch the genius his first match back in Arsenal colors. Thanks for listening.
Awesome player
Would have worked well with Torreira and Guendouzi
Would have even made Ozil look better
Cazorla is the kind of player we don’t have any replacement yet. And it’s actually quite laughable when people compare Ceballos to Cazorla and believe he’s the answer. I think many fans have become conditioned to watching Arsenal play with bad to average at best midfield that they label a player world class if he isn’t bad enough.
And, talking of our midfielders, Guendouzi, Torreira, Willock, Ceballos, etc, I haven’t seen them make a proper 1-2 pass sequence with each other as of yet. 1-2 passes are the most basic ways of breaking presses, and creating chances. Every other team in EPL seem to pull these passes off regularly, but not our players. And we wonder why we aren’t creating chances.
For example, watch the video link below. It’s about Ozil but that’s not the point of this video. DON’T WATCH OZIL IN THIS VIDEO! Watch every other player in the field around Ozil. Ramsey, Rocisky, Giroud, etc. Watch their movements when Ozil has the ball, or the way they link with each other. In this single video of one single game, you’ll see so many 1-2 passes than we have seen in one and half season under Emery. Just observe how creating chances is a more a matter of synergy among players and not about one player providing killer passes throughout the game. This one video shows what problems we are facing in the midfield, and also why we are not scoring enough goals.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjvFqxuatRc&t=314s
Carzolla is gone although he should have been allowed to stay and at least help the young ones and play occasionally. The lesson of his departure is that next time the Board should remember how they let go a guy who is still good enough to play for Spain at 34. given that he went to Villareal, I think Arsenal could have kept Carzola for less than 50K a week plus incentives. Penny wise pounds foolish.