Santi Cazorla’s injury has been pointed to as a crucial loss for Arsenal this season but, ultimately, Arsène Wenger feels the team have been able to show quality without the Spanish midfielder.

Cazorla was injured in the reverse of this weekend’s fixture against Norwich City back in November and hasn’t played since.

Arsenal coped well at first with Cazorla’s injury but the games took their toll into the new year and, ultimately, this season has become one of regret.

Nonetheless, Wenger believes his side have managed to perform well in recent weeks.

“I would say the quality of our game has come back to a very good level. I watch the games every day and you can look at the numbers in the league, chances created.”

Arsenal have indeed created more chances than anyone in the Premier League this season but issues around the box and in defence remain.

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Arsène Wenger thinks Arsenal have rediscovered their quality even without Santi Cazorla. (Photo by Lionel Ng/Getty Images)

Dropped points have cost us but Wenger is mainly ruing the spell between January and Feburary/March.

“We went through a difficult spell but I think the quality of the game has come back in the last month and a half, we have very strong numbers,” said the boss. But it isn’t enough.

“We did not make the maximum of the home results against lower (in the) table teams but we analysed that quite well and we know it’s not down to the quality of our game.”

The last month and a half has included draws with Crystal Palace, West Ham United, and Sunderland. Six more points wouldn’t have exactly catapulted the side into the title race but those performances have been just as lacklustre as some of the displays beforehand.

At the end of the day, we haven’t won enough games and we haven’t really deserved to. Expected goals is one thing, a valuable metric, but Arsenal have had poor play in possession for a while and Wenger excusing those performances isn’t fair on the fans, the players, or to himself.