Arsenal: Everything depended on Aaron Ramsey, so what now?

Arsenal had a fantastic formula in place in the Europa League, but with Aaron Ramse out, who do we turn to? And for that matter… the future?

I was just writing the predicted XI against Valencia and I said “the last time this happened, Unai Emery really went for it” as he started Aaron Ramsey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette all up front as Arsenal tried to preserve a 2-0 lead over Napoli in Stadio San Paolo.

It was the perfect approach. Everyone loved it. And it all hinged on Ramsey being the perfect man to play that No. 10 role. he is the perfect mixture of creativity and effort and he can be counted on to do the defensive dirty work if the creativity isn’t needed at that particular moment.

But it also allowed Lacazette and Auabmeyang to start up front with little draw back to the rest of the formation. Ramsey counted as a midfielder just as much as he counted as an attacker. No other midfielder can play the role like Ramsey plays it.

And now that he is unavailable, it really changes everything. It doesn’t allow Emery to fill that crucial No. 10 role with someone who can actually play it well and that hinders if both strikers can play together and it just disrupts everything.

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Which is pathetic, really. Pathetic in the sense that Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi have all been so inconsistent that they can’t be trusted with the role they most want and are most known for.

Going into Valencia, I wonder if this isn’t giving Unai Emery serious indigestion. Obviously you want to start your best players, and that means starting Lacazette and Aubameyang. But it’s hard to justify a formation that starts both of them without weakening the rest of the team because of all the No. 10s we have on this club, none of them are No. 10 enough to hold down the role like Ramsey did.

To compensate, Emery has been adjusting further back, going with a back four, or two rows of two midfielders, without allowing him to get into that comfort zone of trusting one No. 10 who can do more than one thing.

So if you want to know what the future is going to be like without Aaron Ramsey, here is a taste of it. Nothing is more important than finding someone who can do what Ramsey does.