AARON RAMSEY: AN ARSENAL PERSPECTIVE

Photo by Lewis Mitchell [lewismitchellphoto.photoshelter.com]

Sam Southall

We all know Aaron Ramsey as a Wales player. Every miss has been scrutinised, every pass analysed, every goal celebrated. I cannot possibly add to the canon of Ramsey in this regard but I’d like to remind everyone of the player I watched every week for 11 years, and the moment that could’ve defined his career but didn’t.

Let’s go back 12 years to Saturday 27th February 2010. It’s not a day that will stand out to most but Arsenal fans will remember it.

“That was a thudding challenge. Aaron Ramsey, straight away, in real trouble.”

The commentary didn’t do much to add to the incident. Maybe it was the shock of the crime scene, or maybe just a conscious decision not to relive the atrocious tackle from Ryan Shawcross so soon after it had been committed. Whichever the case, Gooners and Gunners alike were thinking the worst – it was the third horror leg break the team had witnessed in four years. Neither Abou Diaby nor Eduardo, the other victims, would ever reach the levels their youthful exuberance had seemed to promise.

It would’ve been natural to write Aaron Ramsey off at that point, trade him in for spare parts and try to forget the whole ordeal. After all, he was younger than the others and the break more severe. Had the challenge happened in the years previous then his career would be finished, the story written, the book firmly closed. However, the unlikeliest of comebacks was on the cards – Ramsey was walking unaided less than a month after the potentially career-ending tackle, he’d return to the pitch before the calendar year was up and almost a year to the day of the horrific injury he was reinstated into the Arsenal starting XI. That is a triumph to celebrate in itself.

You could see everything after the leg break as an added bonus to the comeback story, an uplifting epilogue to cleanse the soul of the horror seen before, but to do so would be to devalue the true worth of his contribution to North London’s premier club. Ramsey played more league games for The Arsenal than Thierry Henry –  *the* Thierry Henry – and in Ramsey’s 371 appearances for the Gunners he scored 65 times – more than midfield greats Fabregas, Vieira and Brady – but the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

The goals were glorious, almost every single one was memorable. The double against Cardiff, the shimmy against Swansea, the first touch finish against Fenerbahçe, the chip against Olympiacos, the curled effort against Everton, the magnificent aerial touch against CSKA Moscow, the absolute stunners against Norwich and Liverpool, and that weak foot worldie against Galatasaray.  And that’s before even mentioning the hat trick against Everton, the Wengerball moves he started and finished, and all the goals against Spurs. 

For every goal there was also an assist – only Henry, Fabregas, Özil and Bergkamp have more in the Premier League. In 2013/14, Ramsey’s standout season, in which he almost single-handedly ended Arsenal’s 9 year long trophy drought, he contributed 0.92 goal contributions per 90 minutes. It’s fitting that he ended that season as Arsenal’s Player of the Season, having won the Player of the Month award for four consecutive months and scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final. Winning the FA Cup became a habit after that with two further wins and a second winning goal in the 2017 final – he’s the only Arsenal player in history to have scored the winning goal in 2 FA Cup finals, having done so in 1/7th of the Gunners’ Cup wins.  

But these goals, so many of which were followed by the trademark shrug and playful smile, and assists play second fiddle to everything else that was offered by Aaron Ramsey in his life in red and white. The statistics can’t capture his essence nor his energy. His work ethic was unmatched at the club, he seemingly covered more ground, made more tackles and completed more passes than anyone else in an Arsenal shirt. Ramsey would beat players with his distinctive dribbling and he’d throw caution to the wind with his fanciful flicks. Whether there was a loose ball to be collected in midfield or a hopeful ball across the face of goal you could almost guarantee that Ramsey would be there, such was his reading of the game and his movement off-the-ball. 

Ramsey epitomised, maybe more than any other, the beauty of Wengerball in his time at the club. Sporting performances were elevated to works of art flowing across the green of the Emirates Stadium while le Professeur watched on. Although Ramsey mostly toiled away from the limelight, letting the world gaze upon the exploits of global superstars Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while he continued his labour of love. 

As Ramsey readies himself to write a new footballing chapter, we’d do well to remember the player he was during his time in North London – loyal, committed, fearless and absolutely freaking brilliant – and that a return to his Arsenal form would only be the second least likely comeback of his career.