I don't know exactly what fitness issues Wenger had to manage yesterday, but it seemed to me Cazorla was a bit knackered. If he had Rosicky fit to play in the middle, I'd give Santi just one half, and especially not on the flanks.
I don't know if he had Gervinho available though. Would be a good option at any time during that game. And when they got a player sent off it would be great to have Gervinho trying to explore the empty space left.
I saw the Arseblog player ratings post but I take those with a pinch of salt nowadays. I saw him give Cazorla a 4/10 and I don't think he was that bad. He, too, has his favoured players and Ramsey is definitely one of them. Even when Ramsey has a nightmare of a match he never gets such low ratings
But to be fair with Ramsey, he played 3 fantastic matches in a row now (apart from badly missing the target from a good chance yesterday). But he definitely has a good run of matches in his favoured position in midfield and his defensive shift has been very good.
In fact, I'd like Wenger to take it easy on Wilshere and let Ramsey play in that position and build on these performances. IMO Aaron makes the midfield more balanced when he plays alongside Arteta and Cazorla. He takes some burden off Arteta. But when Wenger uses Wilshere, Arteta and Cazorla as a trio, it is like everybody wants to attack and that's where Arteta struggles in his already unfamiliar defensive role.
The same would apply to a midfield of Arteta, Wilshere and Rosicky.
But I think most importantly, we have to realise how we can't expect any sort of defensive work rate from Cazorla being played as a winger. The guy is our leading goal scorer and sets everybody up nicely with assists. I think we all know by now where he is good at.
