Arsenal: Dani Ceballos may hit harder than Nicolas Pepe

Arsenal fans are naturally most excited about Nicolas Pepe, but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about the Dani Ceballos hype train.

Everyone is already clamoring about the new Arsenal signings, despite the fact that we’ve seen the six of them for a grand total amounting to under and hour. David Luiz is being touted as then best signing of the summer by some, but most are flipping between Nicolas Pepe and Dani Ceballos, with Kieran Tierney also hanging around while he gets healthy.

Pepe takes the biggest spotlight, as he cost the club £72m, but the more people adjust to the signings, the more they may start to see that the true win is Dani Ceballos, who is here on loan from Real Madrid.

While Pepe is primarily competing with Reiss Nelson and Henrikh Mkhitaryan for playing time, Dani Ceballos has a harder… and yet easier time.

What makes Dani Ceballos the most rewarding is he’s easier to sell. He’s the next Santi Cazorla.

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That in and of itself makes him more exciting than just about anything else you can throw at us. Wingers are great, and I have no doubts that Pepe will follow suit, but a central midfielder that can boast similarities to Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey is priceless.

Not just that, but while the void Pepe is stepping into has been festering for awhile, the one that Ceballos is stepping into is fresh and bleeding, Cazorla left years ago, but Ramsey left months ago. Both were highly emotional and compounded on by Mesut Ozil‘s inability to latch onto any semblance of consistency.

Thus Ceballos’ hype comes in the wake of much fresher wounds. And the very idea that he could replicate the results of Cazorla and/or Ramsey, sounds better than anything you could tell me Pepe might be able to realistically do.

The only thing that we still need to see from Ceballos is where he works best, either as a No. 10 or a traditional central midfielder. Maybe he does a Cazorla and plays them both, but all I know is that we don’t have anyone at central mid or No. 10 that can do what Ceballos has the potential to do. Which is, again, exciting.

Of course, then there is the ultimate concern—say Ceballos rocks out this year, really commands the season. What then would it take to pry him away from Real Madrid when there is no option to buy? But that’s a bridge we’ll just have to fall off when we get there.