Arsenal: Dani Ceballos can’t hide from the Santi Cazorla spotlight

Dani Ceballos thinks it’s too early to be compared to Santi Cazorla, but he has a lot to learn about the way the media handles Arsenal.

In the span of two weeks, Dani Ceballos went from the next Santi Cazorla, to nowhere near the next Santi Cazorla. After turning in a tremendous performance for Arsenal against Burnley and jumping out to two assists, he was thoroughly nullified against Liverpool, and the fickle fan base that we boast was quick to doubt his abilities.

Similarly, Ceballos himself was quick to downplay the comparisons to Santi Cazorla, on the grounds that it’s just too early to be saying things like that.

I feel like he was talking directly to me, seeing as how I’ve made approximately 32 comparisons between the two of them since the Burnley match and I will shamelessly do it again here—he’s the next coming of Santi Cazorla, as long as we can keep hold of him beyond the one-year loan that’s looming over his every step.

You can tell, just by the way he plays, that this is an apt comparison. This isn’t like when people were comparing Granit Xhaka to Patrick Vieira. That was woefully ill-informed and continues to haunt Xhaka to this day with all the hate that’s directed his way.

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But Ceballos doesn’t have to hide from the comparisons to Cazorla, mostly because while it was idly talked about before we saw him play, the biggest comparisons came after we got to see him on the pitch. He had been seen as an Aaron Ramsey replacement when we first announced him, but it was impossible not to think Cazorla from the moment that Ceballos first handled the ball, and all of that was solidified when he wove through the heart of the Burnley midfield without losing control of the ball.

I get why Ceballos wants to play down the comparisons, not least of all because, as a player, you want to be your own thing, not someone else, but there’s no hiding from it. Not least of all because the media is going to eat up the comparison all season long, belaboring the point when he succeeds and fails at his responsibilities. It’s inevitable.

Thankfully, he’s up to the task. He just needs more time to settle in and hopefully, in the meantime, poor performances like we saw against Liverpool can help turn Zidane away from wanting him back. That’s how it works, right?