Arsenal was lacking a talisman in their squad after a series of stars like, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Robin van Perie left. They had several other quality players but there was no star value in the team, neither were the existing players capable of winning games for the club single-handedly.
Since the departure of star forward Robin van Persie to Manchester United, Arsene Wenger bought Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla. The succeeding season Wenger was instrumental in spending a club record transfer fee amount to get hold of one of the biggest stars in world football, Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid. While Ozil had an impressive start to his Arsenal career, he faltered in the mid-season after he was severely injured. Since last January, the goners could hardly watch their favorite star play. This summer again, Wenger surprised everybody and spent almost 35 million to bring in yet another marquee player, Alexis Sanchez.
The Chilean has been by far the best player not only in Arsenal but in the entire league. Sanchez regularly score goals, provides quality assists and his work rate is simply impeccable. Many consider him to be the sole guardian of the entire Arsenal team.
But somewhere among the star players at Arsenal people tend to forget the little Spanish maestro, who Arsenal in the 2012/13 season from Malaga CF. Yes, we are talking about Santi Cazorla. He does not have the glamour, the fame, but he silently does his job and rescues the club in several tough situations. Last year, after a series of players got injured, this includes Jack Wilshire, Theo Walcott, Mesut Ozil, Cazorla single-handedly guided Arsenal to a decent finish in the Premier League. He even played a pivotal role in Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph last season, which ended their nine years trophy drought.
Santi Cazorla possesses fantastic skills with the ball. His ball control is commendable and vision is impeccable. He can shoot with either foot and also provides versatility to the team. Cazorla can play in the either of the flanks as well as in the central midfield position. He is a big match player and never fails to perform at the higher stage. Be it the FA cup final, or crucial Premier League ties, Santi Cazorla never disappoints.
Arsenal got this little maestro for a very sizable price of somewhere around £15m in 2012. Santi Cazorla has been worth every penny. He has never gone out of action for a very long period due to injuries. Cazorla is good at set-pieces. His vision for corners is brilliant as he can judge the players heights very well. Recently he has been given the responsibility to take penalties also.
While Cazorla is not a box to box midfielder by nature, he can play in that role too if needed. His work rate throughout the match is simply outstanding and with his ability of distribution he can suit himself well in that position too.
Alexis Sanchez is no doubt the best player for Arsenal right now by virtue of statistics, but if we take an analytical look, Santi Cazorla is by no means lesser than the Chilean.