Santi Cazorla is the signing of the summer

The Premier League season starts today, and while there are still a few weeks remaining until the transfer window shuts, there are already lots of new faces in England this season. Chelsea have spent big money to bring Eden Hazard and Oscar to England, while Manchester United have acquired the exciting Shinji Kagawa from Bundesliga Champions Borussia Dortmund.

Giroud and Podolski have been brought in to bolster the Arsenal attack, and their jobs have just become even more important to the club following the departure of Robin van Persie to Manchester United. However, it is the club’s business with Malaga which could turn out to be the steal of the season. On 7 August, Arsenal announced the signing of Santi Cazorla for a fee reported to be around £15 million.

It is difficult for a player to shine outside of the top two in La Liga, such is the dominance of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Santi Cazorla was one of those players, intelligent, quick and at ease on the ball, he oozes class at all times.

Due to the club’s financial problems this summer, Malaga could not hold on to their star signing from just one year ago. The capture of Cazorla was meant to be the start of a bright future for the team from Southern Spain, but despite finishing fourth last season and qualifying for the Champions League, the Qatari owners have seemingly deserted the club and left them no choice but to sell players right at the time that they need to strengthen.

Santi Cazorla was a huge part of Malaga’s success last season, but he is more well known for his time at Villarreal. This culminated in him being part of the excellent Villarreal side of 2010/11 which also qualified for the Champions League. This side was praised around Europe for playing an exciting brand of passing attacking football in an innovative 4-2-2-2 formation. Alongside Cani, Santi Cazorla played as an attacking wide player who often looked to move into the centre of the pitch. Cani and Cazorla developed an excellent understanding with the two strikers, Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi, and the movement of this front 4 was the key to the team’s success.

Malaga not being able to hold onto Cazorla has been great news for Arsenal, allowing them to sign the 27 year old Spanish international at a great price. Santi Cazorla is a wonderfully gifted footballer who will relish playing in Arsenal’s system. He is a brilliant passer of the ball, a goalscorer, a skillful and serene dribbler and he also takes a devastatingly good free-kick. In a market where bloated transfer fees are the norm and bargains are rarely seen, Arsene Wenger has completed a very shrewd piece of business with Malaga. 

Arsenal fans should try to forget about the disappointment of losing Robin van Persie, because in Santi Cazorla you have made the signing of the summer!

Playing without fear

Swansea City’s 3-2 win over Arsenal yesterday was a remarkable achievement, and the players and management have rightly received lots of praise in today’s press. The main analysis has revolved around the fact that Swansea managed to have more possession than Arsenal. A year ago, Arsene Wenger could not have envisaged a newly promoted side having 55% possession against his team, who he has worked so hard to make the Premier League passing kings. Yesterday, not only did Swansea have more possession, but they looked more comfortable on the ball and pressed Arsenal into making errors all afternoon.

Brendan Rodgers took over as Manager of Swansea City in July 2010. In his first season he achieved promotion through the play-offs, and now his side sit 10th in the Premier League. His football philosophy was taken on board by the Swansea fans, who Rodgers regards as “knowledgeable and understanding” and the club has not looked back. No matter the opposition, and regardless of whether they are winning or losing, Swansea continue to pass, press and commit numbers forward. This requires courage, and Rodgers has given his players the belief that they can retain possession and continue to play. Brendan Rodgers said last season that “The model of my coaching life has been based around Barcelona, I have spent time in Spain watching them and they are my big influence.” This kind of progressive thinking is delivering results for the club, and proves that Barcelona’s model can be adopted lower down the football order. Brendan Rodgers has players who are comfortable on the ball, and who trust their teammates with delivering or receiving passes.

Barcelona also faced a newly promoted team yesterday, and like Arsenal, they too came up against a side who had more on their mind than simply parking the bus. Pep Guardiola’s team had played 9 home games this season in La Liga, scoring 39 goals and conceding none. Real Betis won the Segunda Division last season with a +41 goal difference, and in January 2011, they beat Barcelona 3-1 in the Copa del Rey although they still went out 6-3 on aggregate.

Last night Betis travelled to the Camp Nou with the full intention of attacking Barcelona. They started brilliantly and created numerous chances early on. Somehow, despite this great start, Barcelona managed to score two quick goals and Betis found themselves 2-0 down after just 12 minutes. At this point, most other visiting teams usually just give up, and do their best to keep the score down, but not Real Betis. Two goals either side of half time got Betis back level, and the Barcelona team were left stunned. Pep Guardiola was irate on the sideline, and although Barcelona eventually went on to win 4-2, they felt threatened for the first time this season in the league at home.

Real Betis, Swansea City and Norwich City have all come up to their top divisions this season, and all three teams are applying themselves so positively that it is hard not to want them to do well. For so long smaller teams have sacrificed any sense of club identity in order to progress up the ladder, but with managers like Brendan Rodgers and Paul Lambert creating exciting teams and challenging the status quo, football’s top divisions can only benefit.

Wenger sees his opportunity

By 3PM tomorrow, optimism and belief could flood into the veins of Arsenal Football Club, their players and supporters buoyed by a victory which has the potential to turn their season around. At least that is what Arsene Wenger hopes.

Arsenal won only 2 of their first 7 games in the Premier League, and their 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford threatened to ruin their season in confidence shattering style. Yet since losing 4-3 at Ewood Park, Arsenal have won 7 of their last 8 games in all competitions. The worrying trend for Arsenal fans however is that the Gunners have failed in every big challenge so far this season in the Premier League. Arsene Wenger’s side have lost to Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham, which has only fuelled some people’s belief that Arsenal are falling behind following the loss of Fabregas and Nasri in the summer.

Arsenal face their next test in the league tomorrow at Stamford Bridge. Big outsiders at 5/1, not many give Arsenal a chance against Chelsea. However, Andre Villas-Boas’ team have problems of their own at the moment, and Arsene Wenger will see this as his opportunity. Fined £20,000 by the Football Association for failing to control their players last week at QPR, Chelsea have Didier Drogba suspended and John Terry caught up in an investigation over allegations of racist abuse.

Arsenal could welcome back Thomas Vermaelen for his first Premier League appearance since August, after he played midweek in the Carling Cup. Despite his poor form, Andrei Arshavin also looked impressive against Bolton, and Gervinho has been scoring and assisting regularly this season. Robin van Persie, who has scored 6 goals in his last 4 Premier League games, will again be Arsenal’s main and arguably only world class threat. Chelsea will still feel that they should win this match, but Wenger firmly believes that a win for Arsenal is key to their season.

“a win would of course install us among the top teams in the league, but what is very important is that it would strengthen the belief inside the team and would continue our progress" said the Arsenal manager.

A win could change everything. Arsenal could end October a mere 3 points behind Chelsea in the table, which would have seemed highly unlikely even 3 weeks ago. A win tomorrow would give Wenger all the ammunition he needs in the post-match interviews to point to a very impressive run of victories. However, a loss at Chelsea tomorrow would mean another test failed, another dent in Arsenal’s already fragile confidence, and another fall from which Wenger must rise and push on, dragging his team through their broken season.

Champions League Round of 16 - Brief Analysis

The Champions League Round of 16 began this week with four 1st leg matches. Three of the games ended with rather surprising results as Shakhtar and Tottenham both won away in Italy, and Arsenal beat Barcelona 2-1 at the Emirates.

Below, I take a look at some points of interest with the aid of the excellent Total Football - Champions League iPhone app.

England’s rising star
Jack Wilshere has been getting a lot of positive press recently, and in last night’s game he showed off his qualities superbly. Against Barcelona, keeping the ball while under pressure is vitally important, and Wilshere was magnificent in possession. He completed 90% of his passes in the match and showed a level of composure with the ball that is a rare sight among English midfielders. Of course, the master of passing Xavi Hernandez was pulling the most strings again last night, but Wilshere managed to show his class despite Arsenal only having 39% possession.

Mixed Gunners fire power
Before the game Barcelona may have concentrated their attention on Theo Walcott. The lightning fast winger who caused the Catalans a lot of trouble last season may have been picked out as the danger man, but it was in form striker Robin Van Persie who caused most upset.

The Dutchman was a constant thorn in the side of the Barca defence, having 7 shots and scoring the equalising goal.

Walcott on the other hand struggled to make any impact on the game, only completing 9 passes during the 76 minutes that he was on the pitch.

Spurs’ hard work pays off
Every Tottenham player put in a great performance on Tuesday night as Spurs beat AC Milan 1-0 in the San Siro. The win was fully deserved and came on the back of an excellent team performance. Spurs worked extremely hard to restrict Milan and stopped their midfield from creating. Wilson Palacios and Sandro were an instrumental part of Tottenham’s defensive solidity.

This hard work not only restricted Milan, but allowed Tottenham to begin attacks of their own. Away from home, Spurs managed to have twice the amount of shots on target that Milan did.

Harry Redknapp got his tactics spot on all night, and bringing on Luka Modric after 61 minutes was another clever thing to do. Milan were starting to attack with more purpose and the game was getting tougher for Spurs. The introduction of Luka Modric meant that Tottenham were better able to retain possession. Modric only gave the ball away once and was responsible for the pass which set Aaron Lennon away in the build up to the only goal of the game.

Roma wasteful
A demoralising 3-2 home defeat was not how Roma would have wanted to start the Champions League knockout stage. Shakhtar Donetsk look in complete control of the tie after a great result against a rather wasteful Roma side. Only 4 of the home side’s 22 shots hit the target.

Record Breaker Raul
A 1-1 draw at the Mestalla leaves this tie in the balance, but it was ex Real Madrid striker Raul who took the headlines. His equalising goal for Schalke in the 64th minute means that he breaks the record for the most goals in European competition history. Congratulations to Raul and his amazing 71 goal haul.