Arsenal: Dani Ceballos needs a home, but good luck finding one

Arsenal newbie Dani Ceballos comes with a ton of hype, but he has to find a place to nestle in, and right now, that place isn’t exactly presenting itself.

Arsenal‘s business this summer was tremendous, and we didn’t even get to reap the rewards against Newcastle, as all then new signings only made brief cameos and didn’t have much of an impact to make. The player who had the longest, logging nearly half an hour, was Dani Ceballos.

The Real Madrid midfielder was clearly caught off guard by the speed of the match, and didn’t settle in well, but that was all to be expected, and it wasn’t helped by the weather conditions either. All around him, though, Ceballos was being outdone.

Joe Willock, starting in a central attacking role, was tremendous, and one of the standouts early on. He tired as the match went on, but for his impact, there was a lot to be proud of.

Granit Xhaka, while starting slow, settled into the match incredibly well and showcased his maturity and leadership in killing off the match. He continues to defy the haters with his performances.

And Matteo Guendouzi remains one of the most exciting young talents in Europe, always looking forward, always trying to instigate something.

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This doesn’t even include Lucas Torreira, an easy fan favorite of last year, serving as the foil to Xhaka. And when these three were deployed together in a midfield three, it was majority magnificent, as they had a knack for dominating matches.

Xhaka and Guendouzi only got better, clearly. And so did Willock. I would wager that Torreira did as well, which, if the plan is to use Ceballos in a central midfield role, leaves me wondering when exactly he might ingratiate himself into the starting XI.

And how.

Because right now, there are no openings. I thought we might see at least some signs of weakness against Newcastle, but even Xhaka, who started poorly, shaped the match in the second half. Unless Ceballos can learn to do that even better than Xhaka in a very short period of time, he isn’t going to unseat him.

A midfield three opens up more opportunity for Ceballos, as we saw Guendouzi fizzle a little towards the middle of last season, but he’s grown and improved.

No. 10 still looks like the best options for the Spaniard. Willock was great, as mentioned, but he did tire out, and I have yet to see his creativity really take over. He’s a more industrial player than creative, which is fine, but for Ceballos, that’s his best chance.