Amidst all the headlines of the new head coach being christened into The Arsenal, one major story was largely in the backburner. It was of course the departure of Santi Cazorla. The little Spaniard who’d racked up 180 appearances for us and scored 29 goals along the way will sadly never appear in an Arsenal shirt again. He was such an important player for us and his absence was one of the main reasons for our regression in recent years. Cazorla arrived in 2012, amidst the departure of Van Persie and a year after Fabregas and Nasri had left. He was just the kind of player we needed at the time to fill in that gaping hole left by those players, a little magician who could recreate the magic in our midfield.

To give you an idea of how reliant he was to our success since October 2016 he’s been suffering from injuries. Prior to this time, we had won 12 of 14 games; without him we eventually came fifth in the table in 2016-17 and then sixth last season. We were two points off the top spot in the 2015-16 season when another major injury came in November 2015, afterwhich Leicester to won the league. This is no coincidence.

There’s just so much about his game and so much he does both on and off the ball that he’s able to make an impact just about every time he’s on the football field. This dynamic flexibility came in the form of his ambidexterity, right foot or left foot, it didn’t matter.

He was such a crucial cog in the midfield in his deep lying role. He had exceptional dribbling able to slalom through defence, able to thread the perfect pass, and found space when it seemed there wasn’t any. This crucially allowed us to play Wenger’s style, keep possession even when under pressure, and then allow the likes of Ozil the space to create, or allow the likes of Coquelin to perform his defensive midfield duties with less pressure. There was nobody in the squad who had the skillset to do the combination of things that he could do to allow the entire midfield around him to perform their core competency. It is not an exaggeration to say he was our most important player on the pitch sometimes.

But as with so many things in Wenger’s final years, it is a case of what could have been, just like the exceptional talents of Rosicky and Diaby who were also perennially injured, the potential there was sky high.

Above all he oozed class and represented all that Arsenal football club represents. He will be sorely missed.

Here are my three favourite goals of our little magician:

3. v Liverpool 2012: Premier League

Not the most spectacular goal, but it was his first. Lovely link up play with fellow new signing Podolski, his quick feet, dribbling, movement off the ball and ability to find space showed us what was to come in his Arsenal career.

2. v West Ham 2012: Premier League

This turned out to be just his second goal for the club, gave us the lead after we were trailing. Drops the shoulder and put it in the top corner. Pick that one out.

1. v Hull 2014: FA Cup Final

Being 2-0 down in the cup final, we needed something special to get back in the game and arguably save whatever legacy was left of Arsene Wenger. A quite brilliant free kick into the top corner, the catalyst to end a 9 year trophy drought.

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The post Why I will miss Santi Cazorla: Top 3 goals appeared first on Arsenal Blogger.