Arsenal Vs Norwich City: 5 things we learned – Mikel Arteta rebuild continues

2. Dani Ceballos conducts beautifully

When Arsenal signed Dani Ceballos on a year-long loan in the summer, the hope was that he would become the conducting, creative central midfielder that Santi Cazorla had been years prior. He is an exquisite dribbler, a neat and tidy passer, and has the vision and awareness to pick out more difficult balls into teammates.

In spurts, Ceballos has shown this ability. He was superb against Burnley early in the season, for instance. He played well under Arteta before lockdown, too. And he was an excellent conductor here, especially in the first half. Norwich players struggled to get close to him, his passing was supreme, supplying balls forward for Hector Bellerin and others with accuracy and weight, and he controlled Arsenal’s play in possession throughout.

The issue Ceballos has had is consistency. He works hard, but his lack of athleticism means that he can be circumnavigated easily. He also has lapses in concentration when his distribution drops and he plays some terribly wayward passes. Those problems were not present on this occasion and Arteta will be hoping to see Ceballos perform at this level in the future.