What Role Should Santi Cazorla Play for Arsenal as the Season Progresses?

It's been a peculiar season for Santi Cazorla.

As usual, he has played in almost all of Arsenal's matches—his 16 Premier League appearances stand out in a side that has endured injury after injury. For most of the season, he was doing the yeoman's work in midfield that he had done for months; the old spark just was not there.

Shortly before his 30th birthday, midway through December, Cazorla's form began to turn around.

He dazzled defenders with feet as quick as Lionel Messi's, as he worked out of tight spaces and kept the attack moving. He even began to score again, though two of his three recent goals have come from the penalty spot.

The Spaniard's role at Arsenal has been somewhat fluid since he arrived in 2012.

He began as an attacking midfielder, picking up the creative burden that Cesc Fabregas left and that Aaron Ramsey could not shoulder in the interim year. Arsene Wenger then grew fond of using Cazorla as a left-winger, a position in which he had experience but to which he was not as naturally suited as midfield.

Wenger effectively sealed Cazorla's permanent move to the left wing when he bought Mesut Ozil at the beginning of last season.

Ozil naturally slots into the attacking midfield slot that Cazorla originally had, so there he played while the erstwhile occupant did reasonably well on the left wing.

Ever the tinkerer, Wenger oddly switched the two at the beginning of this campaign.

Arsenal fans surely do not need to be reminded of Ozil's disastrous stint on the left wing, where he played until he hurt his knee against Chelsea.

However, Cazorla did not do any better in midfield when Ozil was on the left, and he remained a winger as Wenger tried to get Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey into the same starting XI.

Along with Mathieu Flamini, Cazorla has been one of the only Arsenal players to remain fit the entire season and certainly the only player of his kind.

However, that is about to change. Ramsey, Mikel Arteta and Ozil are all very close to returning from their respective injuries, according to the club's official website. Tomas Rosicky will return on Boxing Day as well.

While Cazorla is one of Wenger's favorites, the restoration of Arsenal's midfield depth makes one wonder where he will play.

The return of Theo Walcott and Wenger's willingness to play Danny Welbeck on the left wing complicate this question further. The former's absence last season did not change Cazorla's role at all—Arsenal only had one winger, and the Spaniard was already a starter.

Now the club has Alexis Sanchez, and thus two natural wingers who both deserve to start when fully fit.

Welbeck, again, complicates things further. Though he came to Arsenal to play striker, Wenger has rightly preferred Olivier Giroud in the middle so far. However, the manager evidently does not want to remove Welbeck from the starting XI, and he has opted to slot him into the left wing rather than play a more traditional two-striker setup.

While it is not clear that Welbeck's free-form role will allow for a cohesive attack (I'm not convinced yet, based on the evidence), Wenger clearly wants to incorporate two strikers into the same side for the first time in years.

Alexis is obviously an automatic starter, and a fit and firing Walcott will surely get the nod on the right wing over Cazorla. The Chilean on the left and the Englishman on the right seems like a logical and devastating combination.

It's difficult to see exactly where Cazorla fits into all this. Mikel Arteta will start in defensive midfield when fit, and Cazorla does not play there anyway. That leaves Ramsey and Ozil for the two remaining spots, and Jack Wilshere will eventually return to fitness as well.

All this assumes that the relevant players will be fit at the same time. This is not liable to happen for most of a season even at a normal football club, and this is Arsenal we are talking about here. Virtually everyone important has been sidelined for a prolonged period this season.

The Gunners' injury woes are tragicomic at this point, meaning that Cazorla will get consistent playing time.

His versatility allows him to be deployed as a creative midfielder or on either wing, and the fact that he is a Wenger favorite means that he will always be worked into the team somehow.

At the very least, it gives the manager the opportunity to rotate his squad, which he is seemingly always either unable or unwilling to do.

Let's not forget that Cazorla is actually a really good player, either. His incredibly fleet feet and quickness of mind have spurred many of Arsenal's attacks, and the Gunners have needed all the ingenuity they have been able to get this season.

Cazorla has not been able to provide much of it until recently. However, now that he is beginning to find some form at long last, it is unlikely that Wenger will bench one of his favorite players during a trying campaign.

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