Player Profile - Santi Cazorla

Birthday:                13th, December 1984 (27 years old)

Position                  Winger

National Team:         Spain

Club Team:             Arsenal

Height:                  1.68m (5.51 ft)

Weight:                 67kg

Home Town:           Llanera, Spain

Regular readers of tea and busquets over the Euros will know I have a slight (deep and passionate) passing interest in Arsenals latest Spanish recruit, Santi Cazorla. In our first blog (http://www.teaandbusquets.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/la-furia-roja-era-continues.html), I named him as my player of the season last year in La Liga so understandably Arsenal have significantly whetted my appetite for the new season with this acquisition. When you add in possibly my favourite two Dortmund players of the last two years, Nuri Sahin and Shinji Kagawa, pitching up in England (Sahin potentially on loan to Arsenal and Kagawa becoming Man Utd's latest Asian posterboy) then this season is already looking rather attractive.

Cazorla is not a rare breed of player in the current Spanish generation. He is very similar in style and physical stature to players such as Silva & Mata. Where he has not benefited is by plying his trade at two of Spains historically provincial clubs, Villarreal and Malaga. With that in mind, he has still managed to rack up 45 caps in the greatest Spanish team of all time which is no mean feat.

He moved to Malaga last summer for around 16m from Villarreal whose problems financially are well documented. Villarreal have famously played a Brazilesque 4-2-2-2 which Cazorla thrived in as he was able to stretch opponents with his superior pace and ball skills. Whilst Villarreal's subsequent relegation was not completely due to losing Santi, it has to be classed as one of the overriding factors.

Despite Malaga having a fantastic season last year and qualifying for the Champions League it looks like their Qatari owner, Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdullah Al Ahmed Al Thani, has decided to cease investment into the club causing financial turmoil, possible Spanish FA sanctions over mounting debts and unpaid wages and the threat of relegation. Arsenal have benefited greatly from this by picking up Cazorla for the fairly insignificant sum of 16m euros, if reports are true.

What type of player can Arsenal fans expect?

At Villareal and Malaga he has predominately played as a winger and has looked to use his pace and invention to cut inside and make things happen in the final third.  Spending more and more time as 'false 11' or as a central winger, at 27 years old he has taken a bit more time to truly fit into a position.  He is very much suited to The Gunners style of play and has a full range of weapons in his arsenal (pardon the pun). I would expect Wenger to utilise him as the Number 10 in Arsenal's take on 4-2-3-1. He never shirks his defensive tasks tracking runners very effectively and is more than happy in any position across the midfield. An exquisite touch and an innate ability to change direction single him out from his peers. Wingers are inconsistent by nature however this is one accusation that cannot be levied at Santi. Week in week out in La Liga last season (and for many of the previous 5) Cazorla was the best player on the park causing Sid Lowe to single him out as the signing of the season. He finished the season with 9 goals and 5 assists from 38 league appearances.

To me he now looks ready to move into a truly central attacking midfield position and become the fulcrum of Arsenals entire offensive set up. 

Make no mistake, while Cazorla may not be as well known as his illustrious La Rioja counterparts he is every bit as intelligent and sure of foot. Spanish midfielders are famed for 'seeing the picture before it has been painted' and Cazorla is no different. . He has more than enough ability to pick the locks of stuffy Premier League defences and provide the bullets for a much improved strike force now containing Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud. With the addition of Sahin and possibly another defender (it is Arsenal after all), I can see Arsenal comfortably challenging for the automatic Champions League spots and hopefully beyond.