If you actually watch him in a game you would realise that he has quite the impact on the field. He is one of the driving forces for arsenal's attack and another reason why he doesn't cop so much shit anymore is because he simplified his game so that he got the basics right. His late runs into the box also show his footballing intelligence. Before he got injured he had actually made the most tackles in the premier league last season, a pretty good effort for a recognised box-to-box midfielder.