Arsenal: Santi Cazorla Challenge Needed Facing

Arsenal has been handed the predictable news that Santi Cazorla is done for the year. This was pretty obvious though and at least now we can go about facing the challenge.

Arsenal’s midfield has indeed lacked a bit of consistency since Santi Cazorla went down with his injury, but we knew that would happen because it happened last year. Going into this year, Wenger confidently sent Jack Wilshere out on a loan and signed Granit Xhaka, but Cazorla went down again.

Lo and behold, we could not cope with it. The midfield doesn’t have the same punch that it does with the Spaniard. And while the stats don’t exactly enforce that the Gunners are a much-worse-off team without Cazorla, there is a major difference.

Maybe it’s cliche at this point, but I have to cite the “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

Cazorla’s injury fooled Arsenal last season but this season they can’t be surprised. Now the challenge that we have to face is getting around this problematic scenario so that we never have to cross it again in the future.

Which is not the easiest of things, when Wenger is always going to rely more on the stock he has.

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I can say that Jon Toral needs a chance and Jack Wilshere needs a chance until I’m blue in the face, but the simple fact is that they aren’t proven and while there should be no reason to question if they are capable, a bit of assurance would go a long way when we have come to rely so heavily on the Spaniard.

This is a situation that should have been faced last year when his injury pantsed this midfield and left them exposed and broken. But hindsight is 20/20, now we have to look forward.

Cazorla’s contract is up at the end of this season and as of right now, there is no official word that he is being extended. And seeing as how his injury will take him to the end of his contract, I’m not completely sure why the team would be in a hurry to wrap him up.

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I have no problems with them keeping him around in a bit part role, mainly because seeing him go for free would suck, but we need to address the long term issues at this position because this midfield can’t keep going through the same motions hoping for a different result.

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