Arsenal: Dani Ceballos is going to have a looming shadow all season

Arsenal loanee Dani Ceballos made a huge impression against Burnley, and I love everything about his play, except for the looming shadow.

Following the Burnley match, the Dani Ceballos hype train was alive and well, chugging out of the station at breakneck speed, and for the life of me, I thought all of Arsenal‘s creative woes had been solved, just like that.

I still believe that. I wrote about how I think he’s better than Mesut Ozil, which got a far nastier reaction than I imagined, seeing as how everything that I’ve ever wanted Ozil to be, Ceballos is. In a different role, granted, but put Ceballos in the No. 10 role and I will say the exact same thing. It’s just a matter of style.

And in the event of a future without a No. 10, as long as we have Ceballos, I have no concerns. He’s doing what we wanted Denis Suarez to do. He is creating chances and making things happen. Mesut Ozil can’t do that.

Anyway, enough of poking the dead horse. The other recent trend on Twitter is playing down how amazing Ceballos is to (jokingly) put Zidane off the scent.

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And, right on time, articles are already coming out about how difficult it will be to keep hold of Ceballos if he continues to play like he did against Burnley. He was the clear man of the match and it was only his first start.

Without a purchase option in his contract, it’s going to be hard to fully enjoy Ceballos all summer. Because the better he does, the more we have to worry about Zidane realizing how good he is and carving out a niche at Real Madrid for him to slide right in to. That’s no joke. This Twitter trend is haha funny, but the underlying truth is a sad one—that if he continues to play like Santi Cazorla, which is a long-held dream of us fans, then he will be gone after one glorious year.

It’s the looming shadow that we won’t be able to part with until a permanent deal enters into the equation.

I don’t care how early it is. One start is just one start, but I’m not kidding when I say that I saw enough in that one start to know that he is the creative solution to our extensive midfield problems.

We have to hold onto that. But if there is one thing that it is too early for, it’s certainly too early to start panicking about losing him.