Obviously a very talented player but his form of late has been average to poor...gets muscled off the ball far too often...some very sloppy passes I don't think it's a complete coincidence our teams poor form has coincided with his form *Is it that other teams are marking him more tightly? *Acclimatization to the weather? *Carrying an injury? He strikes me as a player who needs a break and hopefully he'll come back even stronger rather than playing him week in week out and have the same result
Too much responsibility? With Arteta sitting back, he's our only creative outlet. Also, he's always harshly marked which means he has to be on his toes all game. He needs a rest.
Other than today he never gives the ball away, he very rarely gets muscled off the ball. Even in games were he hasn't been at his best he still creates moments of magic. He needs a rest and probably will get one when Rosicky is back in the team. He has said in the Arteta interview that he has noticed how fast paced and intense the EPL is and i'm sure it is just an adaption issue. I wouldn't worry about it too much, overall he has been great so far.
*Being the main man for this team week in week out. *First season in a new league and Country. *The pace and intensity of this league was always going to catch up, especially as we can't rest him. *No decent back up. *Has to travel with Spain to play some ****ing stupid games.
I appreciate there's no real decent back up however that's a call Wenger should be making for the long term benefit of the team Better we lose Cazorla for 1-2 games than watch him under par for 10 A bit like the Wilshere sending off at United last week...he was our best player and the bench was weak but is it not better to have 11 men on the field than??
With us being commercially in the Christmas period now, Santa Clauzorla is also busy and knackered with all the running around and buying gifts for everyone... heh...
I thought Santi was very good today, if anybody was having an off game today, it was Arteta, needlessly losing the ball, giving a penalty away, missing a penalty etc.
Yes, agree with Arsenal87. Can't really criticize Santi today, he had a good game. He just carries too much of the creative responsibility in the team.
Nothings happenede to Santi. He's just having to do too much. Its our forwards that our letting us down. Giroud is working hard but we look so unbelieveably blunt upfront that we commit too many men forward and get caught on the break. With A World Class Striker this would change. Our midfield is better than last year but we REALLY miss RVP.
Maybe he got through the first month or so on adrenalin, and maybe the pace of the epl is catching up to him now. But alot of it will be to with the fact that the team as a whole are low on confidence and he seems to be our only creative player in the final third although i would expect that to change with wilshere back. I think that maybe he is trying a bit too hard and trying to do it all himself really, but can anyone really blame him? We have no pace down the left hand side at the moment so cazorla's only options are to play walcott in down the flank or create something on his own and as we know walcott can blow hot and cold. Hopefully he doesn't play too much for spain and is fit for saturday.
Annoying as **** that Santi has to travel to bloody Panama in midweek for one of most the pointless friendlies going around. I simply can't see how he can be at his best for Saturday after travelling all that way in midweek, also they will play him from start, because they normally do in these sort of games.
No way is Rosicky going to be ready after being out for some many months. I suspect he will be back for Bradford game.
Would not knock Arshavin just yet. A bit like Theo, whenever he is on the pitch he is able to get goals and assists.
Arshavin since he came to the club has been one of my favourite players and i thought it was a real shame he lost form and fitness. He is one of our players who has world class quality in bursts, he can be lazy defensively but he always makes something happen when he is on the pitch, either a goal or assist or both!
Infact looking at his stats reminds me how effective he has been for us: Half a season for 08/09, he played 15 games and got 6 goals and 9 assists, so a goal/assist per appearance in his first half a season. This form made everyone judge him to a very high standard and in the following 2 seasons he was accused of not reaching that same height. But if we have a look at the following two seasons, in 09/10 he got 12 goals and 7 assists, which was 1 goal/assist per 2.05 appearances and in 10/11 he got 10 goals and 17 assists which was a goal/assist per 1.92 appearances. Last season he wasn't used much and went out on loan but still managed to contribute 2 goals and 4 assists including the beauty of a cross to set Henry up for a winning goal in the dieing moments of a match. So he still managed to have a positive impact if only a minor one. This season he has made 7 appearances scoring 1 goal and getting 6 assists, so back to a goal/assist per game so far. Taking into consideration that some of the appearances made for these stats are as a sub (particularly this season for example) he really is a very productive player. If you want to make sure you score, it seems like a good idea to get him on the pitch! I still think he has a part to play this season.
