Arsenal: Oops, I accidentally forgot about Denis Suarez

Denis Suare hasn’t played for Arsenal in over a month and I may or may not have completely forgotten that he was even on the team.

I really like Denis Suarez as a player, and I was so happy in Arsenal‘s decision to go out and get him. What was there to say bad about the move? We got to try him out before we bought him, we couldn’t create chances and he is good at it, we couldn’t dribble, and he’s good at it. It all made sense.

I’ve spent a lot of time this year talking about why Suarez should still be considered for a permanent move. Because, no matter what else you want to say about him, he keeps getting better. And as I always say, sometimes that’s all you can ask of a guy.

But over the past month, I may or may not have completely forgotten that Suarez was even still on the team. And this coming after he made a really positive ten minute appearance in that wonderful win against Manchester United.

Since that time, Arsenal triumphed over Rennes to move on to the next stage of the Europa League, they demonstratively beat Newcastle at the Emirates, they were embarrassed against Everton 1-0, they conclusively beat Napoli at home and the scraped by Watford away.

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That is a wide array of matches and not in a single one did we see Suarez. Not once.

Now it’s been revealed by his agent that, apart from not being at his best, he was also missing against Watford due to an injury, but honestly, I didn’t even notice that he wasn’t there because I was too busy forgetting that he was on the team at all.

I understand completely what happened here. Suarez was brought in at a critical moment when there was great need. Immediately upon arrival, Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan kicked it into gear and Aaron Ramsey wasn’t far behind. Suarez had nothing to do with himself. He was stranded in a situation that had no easy solution.

It sucks for Suarez, but whatever the case, Unai Emery has not seen enough in Suarez to let him have a fair shot at game time, despite admitting that he was “ready” for the starting XI.

I was optimistic for Suarez’s future at the club, oddly so, but after a month of literally forgetting about him, I don’t think I need to state that I’m not anymore.