One of the biggest disappointments last season was our midfield, they failed to provide a consistent service to the front line and too often were unable to provide enough cover for the defence.
But in all fairness, there were times when the midfield was formidable, they were not always poor and were integral in our long mid-season unbeaten run.
Our last poll was about the worst player of last season and so in a change of mood I thought it would be good to run a positive poll and find out who we feel was our best midfielder over the last season.
Now, some of the polls I have run have been criticised for being poorly worded or leaving certain players out and I accept that criticism and have made the question as simple as it can be, who was the best midfielder for Arsenal last season?
As for who qualifies as a midfielder, I decided that the very best place to decide on that was the official Arsenal website here.
So if any of you disagree with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mesut Ozil or Ainsley Maitland-Niles being listed as a midfielder please do not take it up with but instead take up with the club, it is their list and not mine.
Poll closes at 23.59 UK time on the 12th June.
Who was the best midfielder for Arsenal last season?
- Aaron Ramsey (42%, 217 Votes)
- Lucas Torreira (36%, 188 Votes)
- Granit Xhaka (9%, 49 Votes)
- Matteo Guendouzi (7%, 37 Votes)
- Mesut Ozil (2%, 11 Votes)
- Ainsley Maitland-Niles (2%, 9 Votes)
- Denis Suarez (1%, 3 Votes)
- Mohamed Elneny (0%, 1 Votes)
- Henrikh Mkhitaryan (0%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 516
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Ramsay or Torreira hands down
For me the best 3 were Torreira, Ramsey and Guendouzi
Torreira was someone we needed for a long time. He did very well in the first half but got tired I think. He will get used to premier league. I rate him higher than Elneny and Xhaka
Ramsey was our best attacking central midfielders sadly. Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Iwobi were not up to snuff. Ramsey was one of our most consistent players
Guendouzi was our best 19 year old and one of our Best players. He went straight into the first team and performed admirably for his young age. Can’t wait to see how he develops over the next few years.
Torreira the lion
This one is hard.
For CM: Ramsey wins it for me. He was the only CM who offered a good threat from the middle, Torreira comes second and I’m eager to see how well he will do in his second season with us.
For AM: I want to say Iwobi but his end product is a nightmare, if he had a half decent end product then he could have done so much with his work ethic. I’m actually going with AMN, he was out of pos and his def side did let him down a bit but when he had the chance to drive forward, he did it. While he was playing wingback, I think we all know Emery used 3 CBs because our wingbacks were attacking threats from deep more than defenders.
As poor as his end product is, he is joint first for big chances created and joint second for assist
Iwobi was played as a winger all through . HE has terrible end product but must games i have seen him play as an AM he tries to deliver Hleb like passes . And for me was better than Ozil and Miki for his age, salary and being played out of position .Another person i had sympathy for was AMN for being played out of position and putting a good shift.
It was difficult to choose between Ramsey and Torreira,at the end I went for Torreira.
Easily Ramsey for me. He really stepped up in the big games, and we saw how quickly our form dipped when he missed the run-in.
Yes, our performances plunged as soon as Ramsey got injured
I also agree with the posters above that Torreira was very influential with his interceptions and tackles, but Ramsey’s movements, goals and assists often changed the games
This poll just made me realise that our top 3 midfielders were Ramsey, torreria and xhaka. One of and probably the best of the bunch is leaving for free. That leaves torreria who we like and xhaka who a lot of us want replaced. The rest are expendable, that’s insane! Unless guendozi improves drastically we’re gonna be wxtremely short I’m the middle of the park. We need to sign some midfielders as much as we need to sign defenders
For me Ramsey was the best. Things started going haywire when we lost him to injury. Losing him definitely undermined our Europa League quest. He was shit V Liverpool when they whipped our bums but so was Aubameyang and pretty much all the rest.If we don’t adequately replace Ramsey next season, we will continue to struggle a lot.
The worst for me was among Guendouzi, Mkhitaryan and El Neny. I can’t decide. Xhaka and Ozil follow closely behind. I think the grim reality is most of our squad reeks of mediocrity. That is why we have been languishing on 5th and 6th for the past couple of seasons.
Arsenal should sign the new Aguero before he snatched by other teams….his name is Josef Martínez.
I went for Torreira but I think Ramsey deserves it too. My best three would be Torreira, Ramsey and Guendozi
Torreira … All the rest need to leave temporarily or permanently … Unless we fix this area of team we will continue the descent of the last decade … We are now competing with Everton west ham wolves and the mighty Lyon in the transfer market and these are becoming our nearest rivals as the traditional ones pull ahead … Tinkering will not turn this around … Sadly ownership thinks of Arsenal as financial collateral not a football club so it’s looking bleak …
Where do you guys find the poll? For the life of me I can’t find it but would like to “vote” my choice.
It’s at the bottom of the article, with vote & view results to click on
Thank you Sue. Age is getting to me 😉 hampering my ability to adapt to change.
Happens to us all, Sip ?
I went with Ramsey…
Hi baby, I second that.
? hey there, Pat…
Hi baby, am still here, pat waiting by his phone. We are excited and waiting at the same time. Have a lovely day sweetie.
I’m excited too ? good luck, Pat ?❤
Why is AMN on the list when he was never given an opportunity to play in midfield?
I was wondering about this too (inconsistent articles not an uncommon phenomena at justarsenal). He played in the right back position. If the argument is that in the 3-5-2 constellation he is rather a winger / more in midfield, then why is Kolašinac not on the list???. And what about Iwobi, do you see him as a striker – I would say that he is a classic attacking midfielder and he often came on for Özil?. Not that I would vote for them – Ramsey got my vote, he will be hard to replace.
Nr.2 for me is Torreira, he was steel at times, inconsistant at others.
Please review more before posting.
I put this in the article
“As for who qualifies as a midfielder, I decided that the very best place to decide on that was the official Arsenal website here”
I could say Please review before commenting but I will be nice today.
Admin Martin explained in the article that the list of midfielders is as described by Arsenal themselves. But then again, they list Kolasinac as a defender which is something he isn’t ?
No more comments as the poll results shows it all
The poll is not over yet though.
Hahaha………Love it that Suarez is on there……..how many nano seconds did he play ?
He got 3 votes, directly negatively correlated to his playing time. Had he played 3 more minutes he would have gotten 0 votes.
The 3 votes were probably from “fans” who only saw his Youtube highlights from preview seasons.
😆
It`s Satans ……….sorry……….my wifes birthday today and I dont really like the saying, “better the devil you know”, as I prefer to be married to an angel. 43 years now, I lost count after the first anniversary !
Can we have a poll on how I can get out of this curse ? hahaha
?? Happy Birthday to your wife, Le Coq!
Another article to bash ozil ? We all know no one is going to vote for him so then that will be used against him again when someone is having an argument about him being lazy and he earns 16billion pound a week ,and no fan wants him in the side ,then the usual suspects will then point to this article as proof .anyway I have no vote option on my screen so I couldn’t vote for him to make it abit more fair .
@admin Martin ,maybe you could do a poll on what the fans feel towards Emery ,saw someone else ask the same question ,I would love to know how he’s gotten away from getting any blame put onto him after this last season .
@bring back Midkemma
Xxnofc it is a poll and in no place within the article does it bash Ozil at all.
Please try not to find issues where they simply do not exist.
There will be daily polls and I will cover everything I am sure.
The Ozil bashing accusation is far fetched no? It’s telling that with this, by no means impressive midfield, Ozil doesn’t manage to impress enough fans to finish in the top 3.
The conclusion of the poll is damning for Ozil but the article or the poll are not bashing Ozil at all.
I agree that a poll on Emery would be interesting. What would be the question(s)?
May I suggest:
Did Emery improve this team during the course of the season?
or:
Did Emery perform better than expected
Did Emery perform as expected
Did Emery disappoint
or:
Did
I actually support your comment….too much of fans bashing ozil on this site… and I wonder why it was wenger that consistently got bashed last season even when they say ozil was also poor last season….the point is…how emery got away with no criticism after losing SCANDALOUSLY in the final is beyond me….our worst player for me this season and on the night Niles also got away with no criticism to him after causing at least 3 of the 4 goal we conceded…but guess whose at fault for brexit and boko haram terrorism in Nigeria…ozil….cause he walks off when been substituted…. and didn’t we concede one more goal again after being substituted…. the earlier fans of this club open their eyes to the bad job emery had done this season the better for them…. but am not gonna blame him for his first season…. this coming season is when I will come hard on him as I haven’t seen any….I mean any sort of improvement in the team…. when he came he talked about pressing this and that… the only pressing I see in that team is the iron for pressing cloth…. and you can blame ozil all you can that he doesn’t press but can you name another player that presses in that team….no one for me aside maybe laca and torera… I don’t understand what emery has brought to that team…no tactics no playing pattern….bad subs….bad selection against crystal palace which set the tone for a bad season when we were in the driving seat to earn top 3 not even top 4….the earlier you guys open your eyes the better…. I wasn’t gonna blame him coz he wasn’t given enough backing in the transfer market….but arsene also never had backings and he did a lot for the club even though he was ridiculed by arsenal fans everywhere which am still sorry for…. I guess it’s time for us to appreciate what work arsene had done with the likes of chamak and squilachi senderos and even Silvester giving us top four consistently until the last two season when fans unrest and players contract can arguably be said to have disrupt his performance yet we complained that he had no ambition for titles other than top4 but how hypocritical of we fans that after some players acquisition last summer with a new coach we now accept top4 as a benchmark for success when it was frowned upon during arsene tenure …. I just can’t wait for next season… hope emery proves me wrong… I really have little admiration for him….
Ramsey
OT: many fans have seen the impending purchase of Praet as underwhelming but I think he will improve our midfield. He’s a bit like Xhaka, who lots of guys want replaced, in that his main strengths are passing, through balls and long balls but he is also way more mobile, more defensive, commits less fouls and blunders and has a little dribbling skill. His goal and assist rates are poor but he quotes creates a fair number of chances. He is certainly not Cazorla, he will never have the techniques to be Cazolar so he may not be the answer but he will be a huge improvement on Xhaka.
Ramsey and Torreira all the way
First choice for me would have been Torreira but I’ll give him 2nd, new league, small frame but very tenacious & hardworking.. Ooh & his goal & celebration against spurs just adds an icing to his cake.
However, Ramsey tops it for me coz of his professionalism (knowing he was leaving the club), his goal against spurs, his hardwork on the pitch & his overall impact was felt after his injury.
The rest had their moments but mostly mediocre.
How is ozil above mickie
He has more die hard fans , lol.
What worries me though is we are not clearing as much deadwood as i would like
Admin, can I void my vote and re-vote? I mistakenly voted for Niles instead of Ramsey.
Started scrolling through the names, and voted for my worst midfielder; Niles.
The lad cost us a number of games including the EL final
This poll software does not have that facility I am sorry to say.