Arsenal journalist Charles Watts has been sharing his thoughts on Gunners midfielder Dani Ceballos and his latest performance for the north London club during their recent 1-0 defeat against Olympiacos in the Europa League.
This comes after Watts recently uploaded a video onto his YouTube channel where he reflected on the defeat that ultimately saw Arsenal progress through to the next round of the competition, despite the defeat.
On the subject of Ceballos, who started the game against the Greek club but was taken off in the second half to make way for Martin Odegaard, Watts had this to say about the Spaniard and his performance against Olympiacos.
He said: “He actually started the game alright, but then ended up having a bit of a nightmare after that – [he] gave the ball away an awful lot, gave the ball away in the lead up for their goal, actually, and got hooked fairly quickly after that, didn’t look too happy, knew he didn’t have a decent night’s work.”
Arsenal signed Ceballos back in July 2019 on loan from Spanish side Real Madrid and is currently expected to return to the club at the end of June.
Since arriving at the north London club, the 24-year-old, who is currently valued at £27 million, has made 68 appearances for the Gunners in which he has managed to score two goals and provide four assists in the process (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ comments on Ceballos and his performance against Olympiacos…
Given how Ceballos only managed to earn himself a fairly disappointing match rating of 6.53/10 for his performance against Olympiacos, one of the lowest ratings of any Arsenal player that started the match (as per WhoScored), it’s clear to see why Watts was not full of praise for the midfielder’s performance.
As well as this, The Independent said that Ceballos’ first-half performance “was a mix of terrible set-pieces and very good through balls to create shooting chances,” suggesting that while it was not a disaster from the Spaniard, it was probably a game to forget for him.
Moving forward, it will be intriguing to see whether or not Arteta decides to involve Ceballos in their upcoming Premier League match against West Ham United on Sunday.
Would you start Ceballos against West Ham?
Yes
No
In our view, based on his performance against Olympiacos, Ceballos should probably sit the match against David Moyes’ side out.