Friday, March 29, 2024

Player of the Week: Aaron Ramsey

A fantastic week for Arsenal, heading into a tough Champions League away game – thankfully, there’s some very familiar names back to help. United, United, Unite…Arsenal. We won. Finally. Theatre of Nightmares. How long? Too long.

We brought in this Exorcist, some guy called Super Danny Welbeck. He’s great for us. Say no more. Don’t care if he doesn’t score enough, he knocked United out at Old Trafford, and with it that smug Dutchman’s ignorant face. I meant Van Gaal. But the other one fits too. The other outstanding player on Monday was Francis Coquelin, Mr Revelation – or some sort of weird French Renaissance, either way, he’s here to stay.

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Notice how many times he’s played since his return, almost every minute. Wenger’s putting all of his midfield trust into Coquelin and the tenacious Frenchman keeps throwing it back with confidence and much, much missed authority. But the Player of the Week is neither of these unlikely stars, but a far more common hero. It’s Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal’s Superman, and he’s back with big bang.

We’ve sorely, most definitely missed our Welsh superstar. We’ve missed his energy, his work-rate, his goals, his assists, but most importantly we’ve missed the dynamism he brings to the table; a dynamism lacking through large parts of the squad. He’s the player that breaches defences, that pushes the opposition to their limits through aggressive direct play, and generally taking risks, for better or for worse. Arsenal often play with fear – Ramsey does not.

This is why he’s often crucified for every failed flick or trick that doesn’t come off and lands the team in trouble. Instead of punishing a player for using his brain in creative ways (shown by his goal and assist, and also his failed volley that produced a fine save), we have to embrace it, and this is something Ramsey excels at out on the football pitch, along with partner in crime Olivier Giroud. Both know each other’s game. Both feed off this wave length that’s rarely out of synch. Both helped themselves to a goal and assist, Ramsey to Giroud, then Giroud to Ramsey. Wenger ball.

Wenger says that’s what they work on in the training ground, and you sense that’s where the the large portion of loyalty lies with Giroud because of how naturally team play finds its way to him. He’s not a world class forward that leads a team to a league title, but Ramsey is a world class midfielder that can – something he no longer needs to prove.

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Essentially, what we must all know by now is that Giroud doesn’t have to be a world class forward, so long as he links the players that are. He is Wenger’s number one for that reason only. Unfortunately, when certain players are missing this is when Giroud bares the brunt of his criticism, because without daring players like Ramsey, the Frenchman’s flair does little but fizzle out. That isn’t to stay that Giroud isn’t important to the team because he is, without him the machine stutters and creaks.

I thought Ramsey’s inclusion at Old Trafford was excellent management from Wenger, who seems to be dipping in and out of genius this season, sometimes surpassing belief and expectation, only to casually fall back into old and bad habits. What side will we see at Monaco? Ramsey was energetic and buzzing when he came on the pitch and gave us fresh legs to see out United, whilst also reminding us the threat and passion he brings to the table. It worked.

It was a great substitution. Then he started on Saturday, and we got to see Aaron Ramsey at his very best, doing his Rambo scene, all action hero. He does pretty much everything you’d want a footballer to do. He landed a brilliant assist by flicking the ball into Giroud’s path who dispatched it with eye-opening lethality. Why can’t Giroud do that more? More importantly: what if he did?

The reverse scenario came midway through the second half, seeing the two best players on the pitch triangle their way through the dizzy West Ham defence and Ramsey smashed home with his weaker foot, which isn’t really his weaker foot (insert Champions League volley.) Game over. Roll on the Monaco steel-plated bus.

I forgot to mention this is the two part combination that won us the Fa Cup in extra time, Giroud to Ramsey. It’s a handsome killing machine.

We can only hope on Tuesday night. Hope that the team reaches one of their rare highs. Three goals needed. Well, we got three today, and that’s without a fluid 90 minutes, more like a fluid, sporadic half-hour. If we’re on our game from the off, then we should be all right. But then ‘should’ isn’t a particularly solid word.

Anyway, Ramsey’s back in form, and for anyone still unfathomably harbouring childish grudges against the saviour, kindly exit to your left. He is one of our best.

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