‘Stop Santi Cazorla, stop Arsenal’ – a statement I found very amusing when used by commentators and pundits alike. With all the quality we had on show who wouldn’t be amused, stop him and others like Lukas Podolski and Gervinho will have to step up. Though it seems as though the statement may have a lot more truth to it now than it did before.
Have we become too reliant on the Spanish midfield maestro?
Well it was clear from the get go that he would play a very vital role for us in terms of where our goals would come from. The 27-year-old seems to be carrying the weight of the creative side of the team on his shoulders now. Every now and then stats pop up on how many chances he creates every game for us, and in games where he has been contained those seem to dry up.
So yes, I do think we may be too reliant on Cazorla at the moment. We rely too much on him to do something clever and find a way for us to score too often which he does do very well I must say, more often than not.
But with that in mind, it appears as though we are once again slowly building a team around one player and if he runs out of ideas then we are left stranded.
I do feel though that the burden of finding a path to goal and all that creative play is reduced and shared when the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott play. The Ox is creative, quick with his feet and has great pace, a stubborn opponent for any opposing player, and Walcott’s direct play equally gets us the goods now and then.
But with both players out of action, having sustained their respective injuries, it seems the one person we currently rely on heavily, for now, is Cazorla – something we must not get to comfortable with. Even though it is part of his job to do that, it would be great to see the others chip in. I know Mikel Arteta would have helped us a lot in that department but since he now occupies a holding role for us, Cazorla is our go to man.
What do you guys reckon – are we relying too much on Cazorla to produce the goods?
Give us your thoughts on the matter below
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Yes we are but only till Jack and Tomas Rosicki are back.
I don’t think anyone stopped Cazorla exactly, it’s his teammates who have stopped (he was never a 1-man team). The 2 wide players you mentioned (Pod and Gerv) in particular – Cazorla (and Arteta) still get’s the ball to them, but they haven’t been moving so intelligently or have been much less efficient when they’ve received the ball. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gnabry given another chance at the weekend, maybe from the start, because he’s looked a lot more lively at least.
Giroud should also start because he did nothing to deserve to be dropped after the Norwich game – he worked hard and was ready to play well but he was completely surrounded by defenders, largely because the wide players weren’t moving enough to give him some space. We saw RVP struggle many times when those around him were poor and space was limited.