Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey has one thing to overcome

Aaron Ramsey was deservedly named Arsenal’s Player of the Season in 2017/18. But the midfielder still has one thing to overcome: Injuries.

Aaron Ramsey was Arsenal’s best player last season. In fact, he has been one of their best players for a series of seasons. This is not a one-time occurrence. The Welshman is not a flash in the pan like some of his Premier League counterparts and teammates. Rewind four years ago and Alan Hansen was comparing him to Zinedine Zidane.

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That is an extreme example, a case where the hype overran the truth. But it still provides a neat look into the level that some believed Ramsey was playing at and has been playing for certain periods over the past four or five years.

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In that sentence, though, there is a problem, an issue that Ramsey has yet to overcome to truly prove that he is capable of taking his game to the level that his talent indicates is within his grasp. Because Ramsey has only ever been at these momentary peaks for moments. He has not been able to produce consistently and over an extended period. Seasons like this last one have been anomalies, not the norm. And that is a problem.

But it has not necessarily been Ramsey’s fault, which is why he is often exempt from criticism on the issue. It’s not that he’s an inconsistent player in and of himself, it was simply a case of his injuries, and primarily his hamstrings, two muscles on the back of both his legs that consistently hampered his availability.

Since 2010, he has topped 2500 league minutes only once, that was in the 2015/16 season when he played in 2624 minutes. He has never got close to 3000 minutes, which is what Granit Xhaka and Hector Bellerin both reached this last season.

He’s only made more than 25 league starts twice and even those seasons of more than 30 games, many of them have come when he is lacking match sharpness and still trying to recover his full fitness. It is difficult to say precisely, but how many games has Ramsey played per season when he is has been fully match-fit? I’d be surprised if it’s more than 20 in all competitions. And that is an issue.

For a player of Ramsey’s quality, influence and potentially cost, given that he was offered a five-year contract and, assuming he stays, will be one of the highest-paid players at the club and is one of the players that Unai Emery wants to build around, that is not enough. He must be more consistent in his availability.

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Is it fair to criticise him for it? Perhaps not. Injuries are hardly an individual’s fault. But that does not mean that it isn’t a problem. It is and it’s something that he’s going to overcome if he’s going to truly take his game to the next level.