Arturo Vidal Returns: Il Guerriero Rising to Rejoin the Best

Arturo Vidal has endured a rough year. During a game against Fiorentina in March, Vidal suffered a knee injury. He played through it—probably to his detriment—and after the season underwent minor surgery so as to be fit for the World Cup.

He represented Chile in FIFA's showpiece in Brazil, but he was clearly not at his best. Still, he was one of the most talked-about players in the summer transfer window. The fact that he was held out of most preseason games and trained on his own until mid-August as a precaution only served to fuel speculation that he might be leaving. Even as late as October media outlets like England's Metro were spouting rumors that Vidal would move to Manchester United.

The season opened with Vidal where every person with a level head assumed he'd be—Turin. But things didn't start brightly.

It was painfully obvious that Vidal wasn't fully healthy. He didn't play for Juve for nearly the entire month of September. Throughout October and November, the normally sure-tackling Vidal lost a number of defensive battles. He drew numerous cautions with reckless challenges and was lucky to avoid red cards in back-to-back games against Atletico Madrid and Sampdoria.

His passing was wayward. His usual killer instinct in front of goal was blunted. He even missed a crucial penalty in the dying moments against Olympiakos in the Champions League that would have made the rest of their group campaign so much easier to navigate.

His play was so bad that some, including B/R's Adam Digby, suggested that Juventus had in fact made a critical mistake by not selling him this summer. If he kept playing like this, his highest value had already come and gone. The money could have been used to strengthen a squad that was already ridiculously deep in midfield in other crucial areas.

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Vidal's physical problems were certainly the main cause for his dip in form. The distraction of transfer talk certainly didn't help. Nor did the abrupt departure of Antonio Conte—with whom he was very close—in July.

Recent evidence, though, is certain to give pause to his doubters.

It started abruptly, in the last game before the winter break in Cagliari. Very suddenly, the Vidal that Juve fans have come to know over the past three seasons was striding the field.

According to WhoScored.com, he completed 88.6 percent of his passes, won five tackles, intercepted three passes and had five clearances. He connected on all four of his long-ball attempts and both of his through-ball attempts. Most importantly, he hit the target with both of his shots and put an early dagger into the Isolani with a bending, first-time strike from outside the box that buried itself into the top corner and left Alessio Cragno rooted to his spot.

The improved performance was followed up by a solid run in the Supercoppa against Napoli. In the Derby Italia he put two more shots on frame and supplied Carlos Tevez with a delicious backheel assist for the game's first goal.

In Juve's rematch with Napoli on Sunday Vidal again rose to the occasion. He made five tackles, two interceptions, and completed 79 percent of his passes. But what stood out was the stoppage-time goal that sealed the win for the Bianconeri. You can see it in the video below.

The swift counterattack was started by Vidal, who gathered a cleared corner and fired upfield to a streaking Alvaro Morata. Morata then slipped a through ball back in for the Chilean. Carlos Tevez strayed offside, and rather than wait for him to come back into play Vidal controlled, took one touch to clear Christian Maggio and used his weaker left foot to send a missile across the face of Rafael Cabral and into the top corner.

He's certainly passing the eye test, and the numbers are backing him up. Thanks to a nifty tool on Squawka.com that can break down a season's worth of statistics into chunks, the comparison between Vidal in the team's first 15 matches and the last three is compelling.

In Vidal's first three games, he scored four times and completed 84 percent of his passes. It was a respectable number for most midfielders, but compared to Vidal's past production it represented an underperformance. His average of a mere two "defensive actions"—a stat that combines interceptions, blocks and clearances—per match was a head-scratcher. For a player who had become famous for his dogged and effective defense, it was a strange drop-off.

Perhaps the most telling number was his shot accuracy. He was only hitting the target with 40 percent of his shots. Whether it indicated a mental or physical problem, his sharpness in the attacking third simply wasn't there.

In the three games since Juve's 1-1 draw against Sampdoria, Vidal has been a different player. His pass completion was roughly the same, 82 percent, but the other aspects of his game picked up dramatically. His defensive action average rose from two to five, he averaged a tackle more per match. Crucially, out of six shots he had one blocked and hit the target with the other five.

WhoScored named him Man of the Match in all three contests.

To some knee-jerk observers, Arturo Vidal had begun an irrevocable decline. Others believed he simply needed time and match fitness to return to his old self. If the last three games are any indication, those in the latter camp were clearly the ones in the right.

If he continues this upward trajectory, it will be like night and day for Juve. Given the way he was playing earlier this season, his resurgence would have the effect of a January signing.

Until last season's injury Vidal was having one of the best seasons on the planet. His knee injury robbed him of the man he was, but he finally looks healthy. He finally looks right. He finally looks like the player that over the last three years has attracted the interest of some of the biggest and richest clubs in the world.

You heard it here first: Arturo Vidal is back. Opponents of Juve be wary.