Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey’s calm in the storm a needed dose of optimism

Arsenal’s loss against Stoke City left very few opportunities to spin a positive outlook, but however small, Aaron Ramsey has given us one.

Any time Arsenal travel to Stoke City, you know what to expect. Aaron Ramsey will be booed mercilessly for having the audacity to have his leg broken by one of the nastiest tackles you can see. This practice by the Stoke supporters remains as one of the more detestable, ongoing acts in the Premier League, at least in terms of fans treatment of a player.

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It happened again in the loss, and naturally, Arsenal supporters were left confused, but this small narrative was smothered by the massive panic and outrage going across Gooner nation as everyone tries to make sense of that match.

There isn’t a lot of positives to take away from it. Alexandre Lacazette‘s disallowed goal was a demonstrative one that would have been huge, but the very fact that it didn’t stand coupled with his lackluster performance the rest of the evening don’t couple well with what could have been.

The return of Shkodran Mustafi was nice too, but this squad still looked a long way from where they need to be.

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There may be one minor positive buried among all this negative though and it comes from Aaron Ramsey, hence why I brought him up in the first place. Ramsey actually had himself a subtly solid game. He led the team in tackles, was second in successful dribbles and led the team in shots as well as shots on target.

The fact that he did it when very little else around him was working is even more inspiration for those of us that still believe that he can reach that world class level of midfielder that he touched on in his glorious Super Rambo campaign of 2013/14. To see him hit consistency through two matches when no one else has, that is definitely a start to get excited about.

Not just that, but he was brave enough to get on social media and face the firing squad after the match:

Which actually showed a tender side to an often ruthless Arsenal following, as they were very complimentary towards the Welshman’s performance, applauding him as one of the few effective players out there on the day.

It’s important to be critical of the team when they deliver a stinker like they did, but it’s also important to recognize someone who did his part well. And the best thing is that it looks like supporters did recognize and appreciate what Ramsey did.

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Again, it’s a small little blip of optimism, if even that, but it still counts for something.