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Football London
Football London
Sport
Bailey Keogh

Hale End Arsenal prodigy reveals Santi Cazorla tendencies to boost Mikel Arteta's top-four push

Emile Smith Rowe’s excellent performances for Arsenal this season are beginning to show that he is able to replicate Santi Cazorla.

The Hale End academy graduate has contributed the most goals for the Gunners so far in this campaign and has secured three points for Mikel Arteta’s side on multiple occasions.

And the manner in which he has scored the goals allows the comparison to the great Cazorla, as Smith Rowe has been prominent with his weaker left foot.

Cazorla was admired during his time in north London due to his ability to use both feet with maximum strength and execution.

Since breaking into the first team during the midway point of last campaign, Smith Rowe has gone on to score 11 goals, with nine of these featuring this season.

Even more impressively, he has only scored one more Premier League goal with his right foot than his weaker left.

His goal-scoring record is very similar to Cazorla, who scored 24 goals with 14 as a result of his right foot, and the other 10 on his left side.

This is certainly a promising comparison for Smith Rowe who can go on to be an Arsenal legend, and his consistent goal-scoring will only further support the claim.

The Hale End star became the fourth Arsenal player under the age of 21 to score in three straight Premier League games, the previous three being Nicolas Anelka, Jose Antonio Reyes and Cesc Fabregas.

His excellent record helped him receive his first international call-up by Gareth Southgate ahead of the November international break, where he made his first appearance and scored on his debut against San Marino.

The youngster initially set himself a target of 10 goal contributions this season which has been blown out of the water, and a big reason for this is down to his ability to use both feet, which makes defending against him a much harder task due to the unpredictability of his next move.

Smith Rowe currently sits fourth in the ranking for the most Premier League goals this season, and if he continues on this amazing trajectory by showing the tendencies of Cazorla, then he will be setting very high standards which I'm sure he will relish

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