I agree he is one of our three most important and influencial players but he has missed a whole season, and at his age he isn’t going to be the player he was.
So with Sanchez probably leaving and Cazorla not being as good as he was, Wenger really needs to start looking for some serious replacements, just to get us close to what we had.
Losing one of your best players is not good, losing two means there is a lot of work to be done in the transfer market.
True, an important one at the very least. Top 3.
Such a shame as he’s clearly a figure (even at a staggering 5.4’ :santi2: ) within the team, with a few players citing him as being quite a funny, positive fellow. His talent alone is insane and at the time we signed him, just shows you the wealth of talent Spain yielded for him not to be at Barca for example.
Still, with both him and Jack on the books, I’m still of the opinion that we should be making CM a priority yet again. Another technical wizard is needed, we used to be hellbent on stockpiling small technical players! I want another Arsene!
Maybe that is where that Pjanic rumour has come from (dunno if it is true or not) maybe it is to replace Cazorla.
I know how unique he is and rate him highly but he’s not a better player than Özil.
But this is a Santi love in so I’m not surprised, don’t want to bog this down in a VS discussion so may the love in continue.
Cazorla is a great footballer, important in central mid and a vital cog in the creativity dept. But I am having a hard time understanding how he pips both Ozil and Alexis to the status of ‘best’ at the club.
Özil was at an incredible level in 15-16 (and hasn’t been far off that level for much of his time here, perhaps this season was his worst), but tbh the miracles Santi worked in midfield are not to be underestimated. To make Coquelin look as decent as he did is an amazing feat in its own. I will always remember Santi for having perhaps the best technique I have seen, his final ball often let him down so he never reached the level of some of the other players from the spanish national team glory era, but based purely on technique, I think he was the best. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say he was at the level of Özil and Alexis or slightly above it, though I probably would play it safe and not say the last part. It’s too bad we didn’t discover him as an 8 until later in his Arsenal career, if we had when we moved him to the false 7/aux AM position when Rosicky came back in 12-13, we might be talking about him even more glowingly right now. In retrospect it was a perfect position for him, with his incredible technique in the middle of the park and his lack of finish/final ball covered up, and his defensive nous were always better than given credit for (part of the reason he was effective and we were quite stable as a team in those months when he was playing alongside Rosicky as an AM).
Good post, however Alexis is our best player.
It’s the same at any club, when a “big” player gets injured they become more important with every game they miss. Then people convince themselves that with said player fit their team would be world beaters.
Cazorla was obviously important, his position quite unique , but yeah he wasn’t/isn’t the best player at Arsenal.
So has he had setbacks or not?
Regardless, we should be planning for next set of players in the middle.
Xhaka seems likely fixture…
Ramsey as well?
Wilshere? who the f*ck knows…
Le Coq? Did well for a bit - time to move on.
El Neny? 4th or 5th depth option fine… otherwise, move on.
Honestly, none of those players gets me excited atm. Xhaka started to show some things I was hoping for so maybe he makes it… Ramsey is just too inconsistent… Wilshere looks like Diaby/Rosicky/etc. v. 2.0 - best not to rely on him at all.
It would be great if we could get a top player (Lemar?) to offer creativity and drive in the middle to supplement Xhaka, let Ramsey fight it out for a spot or ship him off, and see if any of our other youngsters can break in (AMN?) and get minutes.
A squad of Xhaka, Lemar, Ramsey, AMN looks decent-ish even if not necessarily title-contending next year.
On the basis that our midfield went tits up without him.
That doesn’t mean he is our best player though.
Would love for us to go after Goretzka would add quality to that midfield that is sorely lacking it especially now that Lemar looks unlikely.
He is but without Santi our fluency and attacking creativity and tight control was a shambles… tbf, we have one of the most tactically “brittle” set ups in the top of the league (at least with our stable squad and management), so this wasn’t all Santi.
Ok, most important. It even means more to a team.
Santi is a purist’s dream.
We might have even had Santi, Xhaka, Özil, Lacazette and possibly Alexis and Mahrez involved in an Arsenal XI next season playing some of the most exciting football in the league. And even if that wasn’t to be it’s still a damn shame to lose any chance to see such a magician make top flight football look so majestic. I think fans of United, City, Chelsea and Liverpool love Santi as much as we do tbh. What a class act.
Replace league with world and you have it. That lineup is sexy time.
Alas… 
He’ll be back for a couple of games max. I refuse to believe he will play any pivitol role for us like he used to. No matter how any outlet displays it.
Not for the long term. Would make more sense to sign a player at the good side of 30 like f.e. Seri.