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Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey Just Needs To Start Over
Aaron Ramsey has stated that Arsenal can still catch Chelsea in the Premier League. The Welshman and his teammates, though, just need to start over.
Entering the season, Arsenal had hopes of continuing their recent progression by challenging for the Premier League title and venturing further in the Champions League. After losses to Chelsea and Bayern Munich in a matter of two weeks, Arsene Wenger’s side now face a brutal European exit and languish 13 points behind league leaders Chelsea.
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It was a damning period for the Gunners, primarily due to the manner of their defeats. Mental weakness, defensive ill-discipline and key injuries, issues that have plagued the club for over a decade, were all instrumental reasons for their failure.
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However, some believe that, even with the aforementioned 13 point chasm, the Premier League is not yet an unattainable goal. One such man is Welsh midfielder, Aaron Ramsey. Speaking in an interview with radio station TalkSport as he continues to recover from his latest calf injury, Ramsey proclaimed that, while unlikely, he and his teammates, with a good run of form and a spluttering Chelsea, could yet catch their London rivals as the season draws to a close:
"“There’s still a lot of football to be played. Stranger things have happened in football before. Chelsea have quite a gap at the moment but it only takes a couple of games and everybody is right back in it again. We have to get back to winning ways, compete again and go on a bit of a run.”"
The optimism and ambition are to be admired. It is certainly such thinking that helps to cultivate a culture of winning, something that Arsenal have been desperately missing under Wenger. However, there is a line to be drawn when positivity becomes naivety, and this, unfortunately, is not the former.
The title is over and Ramsey’s season, like his team’s, has been sub-standard, scuppered by inconsistent form and a multitude of niggling injuries. As the year enters the closing stages, thoughts, amid the media and the fanbase, begin to spin forward to the future and not hang on the disappointments of the recent past and the present.
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Ramsey too must now begin to look forward and not harbour unrealistic hopes of an unlikely league title. That does not mean that Arsenal should no longer to win every remaining fixture they have. But there is a need to forget this season, start over and begin preparation for the future.