Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey fashioning himself one hell of an exit

Arsenal’s loss to Tottenham sucked, but one man who didn’t suck was Aaron Ramsey. Which isn’t surprising. This is one hell of an exit.

Arsenal were bounced from the League Cup by Tottenham in a match that saw the Gunners still battered by injuries and the Spurs not so much. There weren’t a ton of positives to pull from the match, but one of them wasn’t so much of a surprise as it is a standard – Aaron Ramsey.

Ramsey was deployed in the No. 10 role and right from the off, the inspiration was flowing. His backheel sent Mkhitaryan one-on-one with the keeper and the Armenian should indeed be criticized (rather harshly) for not finishing that effort. He had only the keeper to beat, which didn’t seem to bother Spurs at all when faced with the same.

But Ramsey didn’t give up. He kept pouring on the inspiration. Later in the match, on a one-time effort that looked like it was going to sizzle in near-post, but Gazzaniga got a fortuitous hand to it, then it hit the post, then Gazzaniga’s head, and like that, Ramsey was denied.

He continued to inspire moves throughout the day and made it clear that there is no contest, between him and Mesut Ozil, who is then more valuable player, the more inspired creator and the more useful man in the team. It’s Ramsey.

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And while it has been a neck-and-neck race throughout their shared time, with one or the other pulling ahead at any given time, I don’t think Ramsey has even been further ahead. Not only is he doing all of this, but he is doing it in the wake of a pending exit, while Ozil can’t be found and he has a brand new, big-money deal.

I don’t know how it is all going to end up, but if Ramsey keeps playing like this, and keeps getting the opportunities to remind us how important he is, then when he just walks away from the club without so much as a murmur from the club, you may start to hear the brewing grumbles, especially if Ozil remains, back spasming and Fortnite-ing.

The big question being how do you let someone so clearly important just walk away?

And that is a question that the club doesn’t seem like they are too intent on answering. You aren’t just going to replace the drive and passion that he plays with. You just aren’t.