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Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey proves why he should never be dropped
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal nation had been contemplating how to get Jack Wilshere into the starting XI and dropping Aaron Ramsey was suggested. Go ahead and rethink that.
There has been a lot of talk about how to get Jack Wilshere back into the Arsenal starting XI and to my utter horror, the most widespread idea was to drop Aaron Ramsey. I simply couldn’t wrap my head around this string of logic seeing as how Ramsey and Wilshere bring very similar packages, only Ramsey has a higher chance of being truly prolific.
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Against Chelsea, Ramsey was truly prolific.
Before the match, there was so much talk about how this attack was going to be toothless without Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, but what ended up happening was that the Welsh magician ran rampant all over the pitch.
He provided the greatest chance on goal with an absolutely sublime solo effort in which he picked apart the Chelsea defense like soft bread. It even got Alexis Sanchez off his feet from the bench.
That is the kind of thing that, in and of itself, is worth keeping Ramsey in the starting XI so long as he is healthy. How many other guys do we have that can do that?
Not just that, but the main critique of Ramsey is that he gets too far forward, but we saw Ramsey at his utter best against Chelsea and guess what? He was allowing himself to get as far forward as he pleased. Yet he still won the ball back six times and managed to lead the team in blocked shots.
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Ramsey is world class when he is at his best. It’s a massive shame that there were no hard stats to go along with this tremendous effort, but every performance like this that he has while staying injury free is one step closer to truly maximizing his immense potential.
Wilshere absolutely needs to be added to the first team picture, because Mohamed Elneny is no sort of substitute when you’re going for the win. But he is not a threat to Ramsey.
I’d actually go so far as to say that, if anything, Arsenal were so heavily influenced by Ramsey today that I truly wonder how the match would have changed if he hadn’t been on the pitch. I think we can only know one thing for sure, and that’s that it wouldn’t have been a good thing.
Next: 5 Things Learned Against Chelsea
Never ever underestimate how important Ramsey can be for this club.