Arsenal: Dani Ceballos and a rounded central midfield

Dani Ceballos completes the Arsenal central midfield options by providing a key skill that was previously absent for the team: the ability to dribble.

Last season, Arsenal’s central midfield struggled against teams that were brave and intelligent enough to press them high up the pitch. With Unai Emery keen to implement a style founded on playing out from the back, it was thereby critical that the midfielders were comfortable with receiving the ball under pressure and passing forwards to progress the play.

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Invariably, they were not. That is not to say that they were — or still are — bad players. Rather, they lacked a key and specific skill, something none of them were capable of consistently providing: the ability to dribble, especially when a defender was immediately in their face.

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Enter summer signing Dani Ceballos. The Spaniard is renowned for his dribbling qualities. With excellent close control, a body shimmy reminiscent of Santi Cazorla, and the awareness to anticipate where defenders might press from, Ceballos is extremely difficult to tackle. There is a reason the Arsenal midfield looked so mobile and sharp on Saturday against Burnley. Ceballos and his 100% dribble completion rate was at the heart of it.

And as Grace Robertson highlighted in a recent piece for StatsBomb, assessing the change in style that Ceballos, Rodri and Tanguy Ndombele have brought to their respective new midfields, this now completes the Arsenal central midfield:

"“If you know Ceballos for anything, it’s probably those compilation videos of his fairly ridiculous dribbling skills through tight spaces and congested midfields. When looking at Arsenal’s other midfield options, you have good passers in Granit Xhaka and Mattéo Guendouzi, a strong ball winner in Lucas Torreira, creators who generally like to play higher up in Mesut Özil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but no hugely gifted dribbler until now.”"

Without even commenting on the quality and efficiency of Ceballos’ play, the very fact that he can dribble immediately opens up endless opportunities for the collective unit. It will also help accentuate the strengths of Granit Xhaka — his passing — and Lucas Torreira — his defensive contributions and high-pressing.

The primary issue for the midfield last season was that Xhaka, Torreira and even Aaron Ramsey and Matteo Guendouzi, although to a lesser extent, did not work well alongside one another, their respective skill sets overlapping too much, exposing their weaknesses in the process. Torreira would struggle to progress the play, which invited pressure onto Xhaka; Xhaka could not beat the pressure, which would clog up the passing lanes for Torreira to play forwards.

Ceballos provides something different. And that opens up space for those around him. Torreira will now be given an easier pass; Xhaka will no longer be pressed as intently, the opposition aware that Ceballos could burst into the space if they do not press cohesively, meaning that he has more space to pick his passes, which is when he is at his best.

Arsenal now have a complete central midfield, with different players providing different skills. It is versatile, mobile, sharp and modern, and it will be the basis of a top-four challenge.