Arsenal: Dani Ceballos doing exactly what Mikel Arteta asked

Dani Ceballos may have been dealt a tough hand on his loan to Arsenal, but now that Mikel Arteta has asked, Dani Ceballos is clearly answering.

Going into the Bournemouth match-up, speculation was running rampant that Dani Ceballos was about to leave the club early. That his loan move, like Denis Suarez‘s last year, would be cut short so that he could leave behind a failed endeavor at Arsenal and start over in La Liga.

Mikel Arteta did not speak to those rumors, but he did reiterate the mantra he has established for this club—Dani Ceballos had to fight for his place, just like everyone else.

It’s not exactly an outlandish requirement, and it’s something that I wish more club’s would do. But Arteta is instilling it into the club now, and with it, he’s choosing no favorites and refusing to participate in charity.

Ceballos missed a huge chunk of time to injury and, despite being back on the bench these past few weeks, had yet to feature. That’s where the speculation came from. Frankly, I thought it was over too, even if that meant waiting to call it over until the summer.

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But against Bournemouth, Dani Ceballos was called upon to put in about a half hour or work and he did exactly what Mikel Arteta asked of him—he fought. And he fought hard.

He did that, literally, by fighting. For every blade of grass, for every ball, for every forward push. Ceballos was there, leading the charge, joining the fight, spearheading the effort. He made two fantastic passes in the final third, completed all of his passes, didn’t lose possession once and proved that he isn’t done yet.

It’s no secret that Ceballos has struggled a bit this year, even outside of the injury. Ever since his dynamic Burnley match, he’s had trouble getting into matches, but someone hit the rest button in this one, because he got into this match immediately and without fail.

We continue to talk about what the solution is to the Mesut Ozil problem, and it has to be said again that Ceballos is not a bad choice. He’s got the necessary pieces of a modern creative midfielder to make the transition into the Arteta era seamless.

We just have to wait and see what the rest of the season can tell us about him. Because that half hour told me a hell of a lot already.