Only 1 goal and 2 assists: What's happened to Arsenal's Santi Cazorla?

Santi Cazorla

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla, while by no means being awful, hasn’t hit the same heights as last year. The season so far has been almost entirely excellent for Arsenal, with Mesut Ozil settling in straight away, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud improving dramatically and Jack Wilshere mostly remaining fit, but the Spaniard’s form is a noticeable weak spot. So what has caused his poor form?

Areas of the pitch in which Cazorla created his chances last season

Cazorla was the Premier League’s best player, if judged using the Squawka Performance Score, which awards or takes away points for all aspects of the game.

Cazorla’s overall Squawka Score for the 12-13 season was 2640, way out ahead of Steven Gerrard – who picked up the Premier League’s second highest Score with a relatively meagre 2121.

There is a secret, of sorts, to Cazorla picking up a score so much higher than anyone else – he excelled at everything. The Spaniard scored 12 goals, created 95 chances including 11 assists, succeeded with 86 of 131 attempted dribbles and even weighed in with 55 of 71 successful tackles. It really is remarkable that one player could excel at so many things.

Having taken part in fourteen of Arsenal’s twenty games, this season Cazorla has collected a Squawka Performance Score of 252. That’s a respectable Score, but one that’s been beaten by eleven players at Arsenal alone.

If ‘chances created’ are treated as the main barometer of a playmaker’s success or failure, in the same way as goals are for strikers, then Cazorla began the season as well as he finished the last. Having created 95 chances in 38 games last season (averaging 2.5 a game) Cazorla created a total of nine chances in the opening three games against Aston Villa, Fulham and Spurs.

Injury ruled him out for the next month and a half, and on his return, Cazorla created just seven chances in the next 11 matches, failing to create a single chance against Norwich, Crystal Palace and Cardiff.

Cazorla was then an unused substitute for big games against Manchester City and Chelsea. While the games, in which Arsenal collected only a single point, were crying out for a playmaker, Cazorla’s form suggests he may not have been the man to provide it.

Another possible cause for Cazorla’s lesser impact is the improved form of Ramsey and the arrival of Ozil. While their quality is beneficial to Arsenal as a whole, their excellence could lead to defenders and deep-lying playmakers may instinctively look to one or both of those players when they receive the ball.

So far this season Ozil has created 45 chances and Ramsey 26, just ahead of Cazorla with 25. While there will always, of course, be more than one creative talent at a club like Arsenal, the stats back up the fact that Ozil is by a distance Arsenal’s greatest attacking threat.

It was a position Cazorla himself was in last season, finishing the season creating 95 chances to Jack Wilshere’s 47 and Ramsey’s 44 – like Ozil, creating roughly twice as many chances as Arsenal’s second best playmaker.

Going a bit further, there’s enough of a pattern there – with a primary playmaker creating twice as many chances as his nearest competitor – that Arsenal’s players may be under instruction to find the primary playmaker whenever possible. While there’s been no media discussion of such an instruction, that alone would explain Cazorla’s smaller contribution this season.

Cazorla had eight goal attempts at West Ham earlier this season but failed to convert.

In all likelihood, Cazorla’s relatively ordinary season is probably down to a combination of the above factors, and more abstract explanations such as smarter defenders knowing what to expect from him.

Whatever the reason for the 2007 Spanish Player of the Year’s relatively poor performances this season, there are at least signs of a recovery. On his return to the starting line-up Cazorla put in a spectacular performance – creating six chances against West Ham on Boxing Day, while taking four shots – two on target and two a ball’s width off.

His three chances in the two games against Newcastle and Cardiff was an unremarkable figure, though he did draw the foul that led to the only goal at Newcastle, and played a crucial part in the build-up to Nicklas Bendtner’s goal against Cardiff.

Arsenal have been attractive this season, but with Santi Cazorla back to his top form they could be even more of a joy to watch.