Arsenal: A successful Denis Suarez loan looks remarkably easy

Arsenal will have about four months with which to “try out” Denis Suarez, but what we are actually looking for him to do is far from a fantasy.

To answer your question, yes, all I want to talk about these days is Denis Suarez. Because it’s either that or I’ll be hyperventilating over Arsenal‘s upcoming match with Manchester City. So indulge me.

Now, I’m thinking of what would make Suarez’s four-ish month spell at the Emirates a success – a success enough that we’d want to purchase him and make him the leading creative midfielder on a team that suddenly desperately needs one.

Honestly, what I would ask of him may sound stupid, but it is entirely in the realm of realism, and not far-fetched at all. The first thing I would ask is that he lead the team in chances created. Yes, lead.

Because right now, no one on the entire Arsenal squad is delivering more than 2.0 key passes in a match. In fact, the leader, with a resounding 1.8 key passes per match, is Mesut Ozil, the assist king (ha…). And in second place is Sead Kolasinac, the creative genius from the left flank.

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But there is such a clear opening for Suarez to come in and deliver a totally reasonable two key passes a match. That would make him the best creator on the team. Which just goes to show how starved we are for chances.

I also want him to be be in the top two dribblers on the team. Crazy right? No. Not at all. The leader is Alex Iwobi with 1.5 completed per game. Suarez should probably be able to overtake him, but I’ll be modest here – just complete enough for second place (currently held by Ainsley Maitland-Niles with 1.1).

Other than that? I couldn’t care less. I don’t care if he scores any goals. I don’t care what his assist numbers look like (though, if he creates two chances a game, he could end up with like… 18 assists in three months). All I care is that he is making himself useful, and it will be immensely easy to get noticed, if he simply does the two things he does best, and does them well.

That’s not asking too much, right? Lead a Champions League-contending team in the all-important “key passes” metric while also landing in the top two in dribbles, which would require less than two dribbles completed per match. Big whoop.