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[Graphic] Stats prove just how much Arsenal miss this injured star
Just this week Nacho Monreal suggested that Arsenal’s title challenge was derailed the minute Santi Cazorla got injured and these stats prove the full-back is right.
Cazorla has been on the sidelines since suffering a serious knee injury during our draw with Norwich City at Carrow Road back in late November.
At the time, we were battling it out at the top of the table with many tipping Arsenal to go on to become Premier League champions due to our impressive early-season form.
However, following Santi’s injury, our performance’s dropped dramatically and with Francis Coquelin also on the sidelines for several weeks, we were struggling to dominate in the middle of the park.
Francis has returned to fitness and our form is slowly recovering after a nightmare start to 2016, but there is little doubt we still miss Cazorla’s presence in midfield and the graphic below shows just how much we’ve missed him.
As you can see, our win ratio was at 60% this season with Cazorla in the team compared to 52.9% without him in the starting eleven.
Without Santi, we also lose more, score less, concede more, pass less accurately, have fewer shots and make less tackles. So we are worse off in EVERY department.
The little Spaniard is still at least three weeks away from returning to action so unfortunately he’s unlikely to play any significant part in our run-in.
I’m of the view that if Cazorla managed to stay fit this season, we’d be sitting pretty at the top of the table. That’s how much we’ve missed him.
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