Cazorla’s injury means Aaron Ramsey must step up for Arsenal

Aaron Ramsey must take this chance by JH

Well, The news we have all been dreading was released today, Santi Cazorla is going to miss the next 3 months of football. Which means that both of our first choice centre midfielders will now miss 3 months.

In place of Francis Coquelin we have Mathieu Flamini, the only senior defensive midfielder who happens to be fit at this point in time. And to replace Santi Cazorla, surely we will see Aaron Ramsey return to what he feels is his rightful place in the lineup.

After enjoying an outstanding campaign for Arsenal in the 13/14 season, things have begun to seem a little difficult for our Welsh Wizard, just 23 appearances brought 10 goals and 8 assists before injury put him out of action, and upon his return he struggled, he didn’t seem as confident or comfortable in front of goal, he seemed to begin rushing his shots when before he realised he had time.

His tricks and flicks all of a sudden stopped working, he was getting caught in possession too often.

He is currently Arsenals first choice right winger, a player AW realises has to play due to his potential to pop up in the opposing box and put the ball in the net, or to pick out a teammate with a beautifully disguised throughball. His energy is also irreplaceable for Arsenal, Ramsey can run flat out for 90 minutes, turn up next week and do the same again. However it has begun to be quite apparent that AW no longer trusts him with the central role, his love of bombing forward at any given moment often leading to Arsenal being caught on the break with too few numbers back, however Ramsey never had the chance to play with a true DM. Arteta was usually his partner when the Gunners played him in the middle so he is yet to have a sustained run as Coquelins partner.

I fully understand why Wenger feels the need to play Aaron Ramsey, I also fully understand why he is deputy to Cazorla when it comes to central midfield, but with TW moving up top, and neither Chamberlain, Campbell or Ramsey producing goals from the right, Arsene Wenger could well decide to splash the cash on a new winger who will.

Which brings me to my point, Aaron Ramsey has 3 months to prove he is capable of playing CM for Arsenal, or else he may find his future is not as certain as it once was.

The 13/14 season was his best in an Arsenal shirt, replicate those performances, not just with goals and assists, but his performances too, he was a B2B midfielder that year, but since then he has played as if he thinks he is a striker. He must be more intelligent with his runs. He needs to sense when it is time to go forward and he needs to sense when he is needed to stay and support our DM. This is a difficult balancing act, but it is one that Santi Cazorla has perfected. But Ramseys energy should give him the advantage over the 30 year old Spaniard, Ramsey is capable of covering a lot more ground the Cazorla does, therefore this should allow him to get back to cover more often than Santi.

Arsene Wenger said just a couple of weeks ago that Ramsey’s position is on the right, and that Coquelin’s injury changes nothing. Cazorla’s injury has changed things. Even though operation “Make Chambers a DM” is well and truly under way judging by the last U21s game, and despite the fact that AW has always claimed Chamberlain will become a CM, I am sure it will be Ramsey who gets the role. It is less of a gamble than the Ox, and definitely less than Chambers. With Jack Wilshere soon returning Ramsey must make an immediate impact at CM or else he will be moved to the wing to make way for the more discplined Wilshere.

What do you guys think ?? Will Ramsey finally make CM his own? Or will he simply be shunted out to the wing as soon as everyone is fit? Or do you think he will stay on the right and Chambers or the Ox will fill in??

By Jonn Hirons

Tags Cazorla Ramsey

26 Comments

  1. I hope Ramsey does play well but the truth is, he cannot spread passes the way Cazorla does, he cannot hold the ball well in tight spaces, time and time he has been given chances to do that but the result has been the same, remember the West ham game earlier this season, we were without bite and toothless, I do hope he proves me wrong this time.
    The only player I think is capable of replacing Santi is Wilshere, but the lad won’t take stay from Injury long enough to cement a place in the middle. I hope he has learnt his lessons this time.
    Both Campbell and Chamberlain have a rare opportunity to show what they can do till most of the injured players return, it’s left for them to take their chances.
    Any news about Walcott, please.

    1. @jamesbrowney
      Jack can pass. Thats it. He cannot dribble his way out of tight spots. He does not hold the ball well and he is sad at defending…He cannot replace Santi…

      1. Really? ?
        So our future club and country captain (your words) is now a one trick pony? ?

        ContraDICtion at its finest …mr Akb Gunner ?

  2. Even with what he is known for- bringing up youth players up, he doesn’t do again. You won’t know a young player is ready unless you try him! At this injury rate jeff bielik iwobi should be seeing more time I guess.

    1. Because he is afraid that the majority of his squad lacks the quality required. He is unable to manage a squad of 22 world class players so settles for 3 world class players 8-10 good quality and the rest are of lesser quality and therefore reasonably happy to sit on the bench occasionally.

  3. You can forget about the Ox playing anywhere near our defence, surely you remember the countless times he gave the ball away that lead to us conceding?

    Wenger will keep his golden boy on the right wing and
    To think that he chose to rest him instead of taking off the injured Cazorla …. maybe that was Wenger’s pay back for the penalty miss against Wba.

    I’m sure we will see Chambers as DM along side Flamini,
    Hopefully we will see Jeff in action against Sunderland.

  4. Considering the injury toll
    the gaffer can still put out
    a decent side which should
    beat Sunderland comfy.
    Cech
    Bellerin Mertz Kos Monreal
    Flamini Chambers
    Ramsey Ozil Adelaide
    Giroud.

    Ospina Debuchy Gabriel Gibbs
    Bielik Chamberlain Campbell

    1. Flamini and chambers side by side in an arsenal 3man midfield??? Football suicide at its best mate and probably the most boring game ul ever watch an arsenal team play lol Adelide though i do agree on him or Iwobi… Think Per should be gradually pushed onto the subd bench and give Gabriel a good run of games with Koss… He could be a beast but needs a run of games under his belt as all players do!

    2. ? That’s not bad but it won’t be good enough I’m afraid!
      We couldn’t best Wba or Norwich with a better squad than that and yet Sunderland have just started to get their act together, Plus the fact that we are very charitable towards teams that haven’t beaten us for years!

      Don’t forget we could only draw 0-0 with them the last time they visited the Emirates.

      You may as well throw a few xxxks out now!
      because come Saturday evening it’s gonna be very busy on here!

  5. Forget bout it………. Ramsey can’t be carzola…………. He’s now our right winger… Thanks to Wenger *smirks*

  6. I don’t blame Wenger for not rotating (not many mangers do, anyway) but I do blame him for not signing quality players …

  7. Ramsey will do just dandy there. No, he is not Santi like Santi is not Rambo and like cheese is not bread nor bread like cheese. It’s apples and oranges (I’m hungry now!)

    He is one of our squad/teams better quality players . His recent assist and goal ratio Is not up there by his own top standards but some others in our squad would be happy to get anywhere near his contribution and affect on a game (Campbell and wellbeck to name just two).

  8. Morning gooners ? its nearly match day!!! Looking forward to this weekends game against sunderland no matter what the starting 11 is. We should pick up 3points but considering the way we are playing, injuries and thinking we should be clear at the top of the league, i wont get my hopes up because as of last weeks defeat and our last few games i dont see us as contenders this season… its a fight for 3rd again for automatic spot i group stage of CL. Man City have too strong a squad not too win it tbh and we are not the Arsenal we know and these injuries have cost us not will as we are already on our last legs!

    Cazorla out for 3months now, its simple Ramsey goes B2B and flamini goes beside him in the DM until chambers is ready but no better game to try than sunderland at home! Still would love to see Coq/Wilshere/Ozil combo in the future!!! Giroud needs to drop to bench hes better coming off the bench with a point to prove, campbell plays no9 for Costa Rica give him a go with Ox right and bring Iwobi/Adelide in! whats the worse that can happen? we are not gona win the league this year folks so why not experiment with what we got? he brought them in or them up and have did ok when they have played. Wenger has took enough chances and messed up a few more wont matter now! We might have a star or 2 waiting to be brought up!

      1. Hahaha
        you best get used to that feeling Kos,
        It’s gonna be a long hard cold winter for all gooners!

    1. Coq Wilshere ozil is my dream combo atm, allows Wilshere to play in his vest position with someone there to help him defensively

  9. I think with this long inaction of Cazorla at CM, Ramsey is the player looking likely to fill the CM void left behind by Cazorla. But there will be issue at RW, who is capable to fill that gap that could become vacant if Ramsey is moved from there? The filler has to be efficient kind and not just any of the Ox or Campbell kind, who have not been as impressive for Arsenal this season as 1st thought. I know the Boss is likely to play the duo as RW&LW if he moved Ramsey to CM. And let’s not forget that Chambers is said to be slow. A slow DM could be unproductive in the Sunderland game. Jeff, Iwobi should be re-checked for a possible use at RW&CM roles. Or alternatively, Debuchy be played at RB and Bellerin be played at RW. I think Gibbs is injured. Otherwise he could be started at LW-mid.

    1. Debuchey has been a nightmare whenever he gets on the pitch, it will be the ox and Campbell, they deserve a decent run to produce

  10. People rate Cazorla above Ramsey in the CM position only because its been quite a long time since Ramsey played there and in football world memory is very shot lived.
    Ramsey will be back in his favoured position now ( madness if he isn’t ) and few games later Wenger will be applauding Ramsey on how good his runs and stamina is as if it was Wenger’s own decision of putting Ramsey back there and not the misfortune of Cazorla getting injured.
    Lets take a look at Wenger’s recent (upto 1-2 years something) decisions regarding team formation and players in starting 11.
    – cech was bought after yearsssss of torture by almunia fabianski szeszny . Mainly from pressure from fans and cheap availability of petr cech.
    – Bellerín came to the stage only because of injuries, it wasn’t Wenger who decided to give him a chance but he gets the credit like he planned it all.
    -coquelin the same way as Bellerín.
    – Cazorla in cm because at that time there was no other available, Ramsey Wilshere were injured.
    – Giroud. Because no one else was there. Then Theo got his chance there played well and we saw good a speedy striker can be for us but then he got injured for a year and we didn’t care to buy any one.
    Ps- some of the statements can be irrational but the point is Wenger only makes changes in the team when the team is performing horribly for past 4-5 games or when there are injuries. Its like everytime we win a couple of games Wenger feels he has a winning formula that must not be changed .

  11. I don’t think pushing Ramsey on the right had anything to do with him being a bad B2B player, but rather with Cazorla being the best B2B player in the squad. No doubt he will do his job just right, he is good at dispossessing opposition.

  12. Iwobi and Oxlade-Chamberlain will be our starting wingers. I personally would love to see The Jeff get into action but Wenger definitely feels he’s too raw still.

    I miss Welbeck. 🙁

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