Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey injury a special sneak peak of next year

Aaron Ramsey helped Arsenal get off to a roaring start against Ramsey, but he only made it half an hour. Consider this a special sneak peak.

You wouldn’t have guessed, after Watford and, further back, Everton, that Arsenal would get off the blocks as well and as strongly as they did against Napoli. But they were firing, and Aaron Ramsey was at the heart of all of it, using his energy and enthusiasm to drive the No. 10 position.

He only made it half an hour before his ham string gave out and he was being replaced by Henrikh Mkhitaryan (which actually worked out quite well).

Ramsey’s injury, being on that he was unable to carry on after, is likely going to keep him out for a match or two, maybe more, and if nothing else, and by the power of optimism, I’m going to make this a good thing. Because now we have a chance to see what life will be like without Aaron Ramsey.

I’m not looking forward to it, and you shouldn’t be either, but at least now we can know. As we’ve gotten into the crunch time of the season, we’ve been relying on Ramsey more and more because he brings to the No. 10 role what Mesut Ozil simply doesn’t.

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And, in these tough away matches, it’s always Ramsey that is turned to, for just cause. But now that we don’t have that luxury, it’s time for the team to adjust. Mkhitaryan was the man who got the nod as the No. 10 when Ramsey went down, and he did pretty well with it, better than I think Ozil would have done, but I still wonder if both are still inadequate for what Unai Emery wants. After all, Mkhitaryan will not have the dual-capability of playing in a deeper position, like Ramsey has.

This is a necessary inconvenience. A last testament to how important he is because I’m not sure that his worth can be quantifiable by hypotheticals. We need to see, first-hand, what life is like without him, especially in the crunch time, to fully appreciate just how much he provided and, by extension, what it will then take to replace him.

So don’t look at this like a “woe is us, we’re losing him,” but rather a special sneak peak of what were to happen if we don’t take replacing Aaron Ramsey seriously. Which, God-willing, we won’t have to worry about, as it looks as though the club is in fact taking it very seriously.