Arsenal Vs Huddersfield Town: Aaron Ramsey coming back to the peak

Ever since his remarkable 2013/14 season, Aaron Ramsey has been yearning to reach such heights again. Well, the Arsenal midfielder may just be coming back to his peak once more.

Aaron Ramsey was phenomenal in the 2013/14 season. Playing a free-roaming, marauding central midfield role, he had the license to drift wherever he saw fit. His excellent engine, his outstanding stamina, allied with his game intelligence and spatial awareness, meant that he was a constant influence on the game, always looking for the ball, always probing his way from a deeper midfield position.

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And the statistics supported his uptick in performance. In just 1764 Premier League minutes, Ramsey scored 10 goals and assisted a further 8. That is a direct involvement in a goal every 98 minutes.

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His next best figure, excluding this current season, was in the 2009/10 season, when he played just 780 minutes of football in the whole year, and was therefore aided by the anomalies that a small sample size can throw up, and had a direct involvement in a goal every 130 minutes. Taking seasons where he has played more than 1500 minutes of football, as to therefore iron out the issues that a small sample size can produce, his best goal-involvement-to-minute ratio was the 2014/15 season, where he either scored or assisted a goal every 167.5 minutes. That is nearly double his best season’s mark.

Ever since that remarkable 2013/14 season, Ramsey has been desperately trying to reattain such heights. But injuries, a lack of confidence, positional uncertainty, and growing competition from within the squad have restricted his ability to be able to do so. But this year, again playing in a free central role at the heart of the Arsenal midfield, the Welshman is beginning to back to the mountaintop, and it is wonderful to see.

Using the same metrics as before, it is clear to see an improvement in his game. Ramsey had scored three goals and assisted five so far this Premier League season. That is, as a slight aside, more than any other Arsenal player, which is interesting to note. It also yields a direct involvement in a goal every 127.38 minutes, which is his best tally other than the 2013/14 season.

He was instrumental in Arsenal’s dismantling of Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night, with a lovely flick into the path of Alexandre Lacazette for the first goal, and then two sliding, perfectly-weighted passes into the path of Mesut Ozil, the first to allow the German to set up Alexis Sanchez, and the second as an assist, with Ozil dinking the shot over the onrushing goalkeeper. And he has had an increasing influence on games more generally, as Arsene Wenger has implemented a higher-tempo to his side’s play, demanding that they press higher up the pitch and suffocate the opposition, a strategy that suits Ramsey’s running-orientated style.

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This is Ramsey’s best season since the famed 2013/14 campaign; Wednesday night’s win over Huddersfield was perhaps his best performance of the season, as well. It is brilliant that a player who has dealt with his injury problems has been able to rediscover his best form. May it long continue.