Arsenal: Okay, Joe Willock, I see the Aaron Ramsey comparison now

Arsenal witnessed some special stuff from Joe Willock. So special, in fact, that maybe I’m starting to see the comparison to Aaron Ramsey. Maybe.

When Joe Willock started to break into the Arsenal first team more and more, there were murmurs that he could be the Aaron Ramsey replacement we so desperately needed. And they weren’t just idle voices from nowhere either, there were some respected opinions saying that this was the logical comparison to make.

I didn’t buy it. You don’t just be the next Aaron Ramsey. You really have to earn that. Even when Aaron Ramsey was a young’un, I don’t think many were expecting him to be the prolific, legendary midfielder he ended up being.

As such, to be “the next” required significant displays of heroism, dynamism, all those ‘isms’. And no matter how great his potential was, I didn’t see Ramsey.

That is, not until Joe Willock fired home that beautiful curling thudder against Liverpool to give the Gunners a 5-4 lead. When he popped off the shot, I had 0% belief it would go in. Way too optimistic.

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But it did. And it’s not even the goal that was very Ramsey-like. It was the fact that he had been largely irrelevant all day and actually played rather poorly. He wasn’t at his best, as he hadn’t been in previous matches, but when the team needed to go ahead (albeit temporarily), he was there to fire home an improbable goal.

It doesn’t get much more Ramsey than that. How many times did we see Ramsey do nada for 75 minutes, lose possession, try too hard and then, right when you start thinking he should probably be taken off, or maybe you forget he’s even out there, a burst of inspiration reminds you that he is capable of anything and everything.

Literally, anything and everything. I doubt many of you thought Willock would score that, let alone shoot, and I doubt many of you expected the split-second heroics that Ramsey often pulled out of seemingly nowhere.

These comparisons are always tough. As soon as I hear them, I often shirk and try to forget I heard them. Lucas Torreira the next N’Golo Kante? Get lost. Joe Willock the next Aaron Ramsey? Do the same.

Still. Do the same. But at least I can see the starts of where that comparison could find a place to roost. That goal and that moment were pure Ramsey.