Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey’s super Rambo breaking free

Arsenal’s exhilarating 4-1 win over Stoke City was devoid of Aaron Ramsey at the start, for reasons unknown, but when he came on, it was lights out.

Arsene Wenger is always going to be under the microscope, but against Stoke City, everything seemed to go right for Arsenal. Although, at that start, many were questioning why on earth he would sit an in-form Aaron Ramsey in favor of a perennially out of form Francis Coquelin.

Maybe because it was Coquelin’s birthday.

Anyway, Coquelin actually did very well with his time, but that isn’t what we are here to talk about. I was worried that this would upset Ramsey’s rhythm. He is a player that depends on a steady rhythm and it’s no secret that when he loses it, getting it back is like trying to teach an octopus to tap dance, there is no simple explanation to how to do it.

So when the Welshman was brought on for an injured Alexis Sanchez, I was honed in on his antics and I couldn’t be happier with how he reacted to the brief interruption to the fine finish of the season. Ramsey integrated himself into the game immediately and had his foot on the gas, pestering the Stoke defense with complete freedom and ending up notching a superb assist to, guess who, Olivier Giroud.

The key to life with Ramsey has been figuring out how to unlock Super Rambo. The 2013/14 superpowered version of the Welshman that was a world class midfielder.

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This formation may damn well have done it and while my initial claim of “Super Rambo is back!” was not met with nodding heads among the writers here at Pain in the Arsenal, I could not feel more confident in my assessment. And there is one big reason why, even if the stats aren’t lining up just yet.

Ramsey is playing with complete freedom. He doesn’t have anything he has to do. He does what he wants to do and his instincts make him a menacing threat, especially when paired up with the other weapons Arsenal has.

Alexis was not missed in the twenty minutes he had taken from him because Ramsey did everything the Chilean had been doing. He had free roaming capabilities, even in a more advanced role.

Next: 5 Things We Learned Against Stoke City

You may call it premature or “falling for it” but Super Rambo is back. And I cannot wait to see what he can do next year. If he can lift the pressure off of Alexis and Mesut Ozil even in the slightest, I’ll say that his superpowers were worth it.