Arsenal and Dani Ceballos: Be Santi Cazorla and you’ll be a legend

Arsenal newbie Dani Ceballos has cited Cesc Fabregas and Santi Cazorla as two big inspirations. Be the latter, and Ceballos will be a legend.

Santi Cazorla was one of those players that you just wished could have played at Arsenal forever. Which sucks, because he was only with us five years, the latter of those years coming with severe injuries that saw his time at the Emirates cut short.

But in the time he was there, he did some remarkable things, able to play across the board as a midfielder. In that first year he had at the Emirates, with 12 goals and 11 assists, he redefined expectations for a midfielder. And then, to take that skill and shift to a deeper role and thrive there as well, it was something truly special.

Here comes Dani Ceballos, 22-years-old, citing Cazorla as an idol, and many will compare their two playing styles and for just cause. They provide a lot of the same tools and have the versatility to play across the midfield spectrum.

As many of you know, I hate comparisons. I hate saying that any player is “the next” anyone, or even saying that a player is our version of X, like how Lucas Torreira became our version of N’Golo Kante.

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Every player is his own thing. Every player will do something different than every previous player. But there is a value to knowing what sort of “player mold” someone fits in, and Dani Ceballos clearly fits in the Santi Cazorla mold.

Which is a mold that I don’t think we have seen before, and a mold that I didn’t think we would see again. Replacing him always ranked as a top priority, but you don’t just find another Santi Cazorla, someone who can play so many roles with such effectiveness and never lose that creative flair and that desire to play.

It’s a high bar to set, and one that you want to be leery of and not wholly embrace, but the allure of having actually replaced Santi Cazorla is that missing piece that I’m sure many of us had written off. Which is why the arrival of someone who cites Cazorla as an inspiration is so exciting.

Nearly every player that played alongside Cazorla cited him as the most talented player on the team. Some would go so far as to say he was the most talented player they’d ever played with. Like I said, big shoes for Ceballos to fit into, but who knows what he can do until we see it.