Arsene Wenger hailed the performance of Aaron Ramsey as the Welshman shone in the 2-0 win over Aston Villa today, and that the time he spent playing on the right has made him a better player in the centre of midfield.
Since moving back into the middle, Ramsey has played three games, scored twice and got two assists to his name. Today, he began and ended the move for the Gunners second goal, and there’s no question he’s added some dynamism and threat from midfield, something that drew praise from his manager today.
“He had an outstanding performance today,” said Wenger. “I think of course he is naturally more of a central midfielder and I pushed him out wide for a while because I believe we have seen many times that when players are pushed against the line they need to shorten their technique.
“When they come back into the middle again, they are better players.”
The manager also had some words of praise for Olivier Giroud after his 14th goal of the season set Arsenal on their way to victory.
“I believe he is at the top of his game and he is questioned sometimes. Finally, the numbers get people to realise he is a good player.
“He has improved, his link play is better and when we have the option for a long ball he is a very interesting option.”
Arsene knows
Just sit yourself down and just admire
Trust…!
Arsene’s magical wings.
Lord Bendtner would not be where he is today without his time out wide. Ponder that for a minute.
Dejavu 2 years ago…
Got to be fair to him. There was a time when we railed at his shortcomings, over complicated style, misses and poor decision making. And then one day he upped his game. And now he will be at the European championship giving us some genuine pride in his all round game. Tip of the hat to him.
I hope he has a really shit second game in the European Championships.
Don’t know why all the thumbs down, I think he’s basically saying he doesn’t want Ramsey to inspire Wales to beat England at the Euros, he’s not talking about the Champions League.
Perhaps all the thumbs down are from Welsh Arsenal fans.
And some Scottish ones.
Or because why would you wish poor fortune on an arsenal player?
He won’t be playing for Arsenal though, he’ll be playing against England and I’m English.
Yeah but if you’re gonna make wishes, you may as well go big and hope that it ends 5-3 with Ramsey getting a hat trick, Bale taking a kick to the balls and Walcott and The Ox winning it for England
The thumbs down are because that was just a really mean spirited thing to say about one of our own.
You guys just blew my mind….
Time on anywhere makes a player better.
Still think he is better through the middle though where his vision and passing can come to play better.
But he is such a versatile player Rambo
Yeah? Tell that to Moanrinho!
“shorten their technique” …hmmm… sounds pretty close to making stuff up. Gotta love Arsene!
Such a tricky choice, I’m sure we’d have won that game 2-0 with Cazrola in the middle and Ramsey on the right. What a lovely squad Arsene has.
I definitely think Santi is more skillfull in gaining and maintaining control in midfield, but Ramsey definitely adds a different scoring dynamic that Santi can’t match. Besides, Santi seems to do better offensively when he plays forward.
Ah so many thumbs down. But why?!
Because you suggest that Arsene is a bullshitter. ‘Shorten his technique’ means make decisions and take action quicker – we saw this today. Playing on the flank helped Henry, the Dutch skunk and Theo. Sadly not quite as effective for TGSTEL though.
I think he means that there is simply physically less space to play in when one is playing so close to the line. Less space to move, so movements and passes need to be tighter
Yes exactly he always says that playing on the wing for central players divides the amount of space they half by two.
And also because the name is spelled CA-ZOR-LA, not Cazrola or Carzola. FFS, figure it out.
Spurs.
BBC Radio were going on about their impressive fitness.
As soon as they lost, they went on about the impact of Thursday night and how the Spurs players were tired.:D
Why anyone would want Arsenal to play for a lower tier cup on Thursdays with impact to weekend competition is beyond me.
Playing Thursdays and Sundays is no different from playing Wednesdays and Saturdays. It’s just the playing twice a week that’s hard, and it’s harder for the upper mid table teams that typically play Europa league because they don’t quite have the squad depth that the top teams tend to have.
It’s also a significantly longer run to get to the EL final. Two more games may not seem like that much but when you add in all the cup competitions and suchlike it means that pretty much you’re playing twice a week every week with no breaks at all except for interlulls.
Except that we played Wednesday and Sunday, and sometimes it’s Tuesday to Saturday/Sunday. It’s definitely easier in the Champion’s League than the Europa league.
Ramsey on the right made him better lift Ozil and Cazorla on the left made them better ^_^
He is the best box-to-box midfielder in Europe (world)
This might just be our year: everybody is coming in and doing their bit.
There is a lot more maturity amongst the players, more top top players (Sanchez, Cech and Ozil) far deeper squad (even in the dodgiest position, DM, with the Coq out, there is Flamini, Arteta and if really needed, Chambers that can play DM. You can question the quality but there are numbers) and better team spirit and cohesion. Sometimes not buying anyone is fine if the other players grow together. I’m more optimistic that the second half of the season will match the first tis time (especially if we note the Mike Dean inspired Chelsea win that shouldn’t have been… Read more »
And the two more we should have from Ramsey’s perfectly legit disallowed goal against Liverpool.
On the Mike Dean note, coincidence he hasn’t reffed us in well over 2 months now?
Unfortunately, in this case, I think it is coincidence. There are around 12-15 refs in the PL which means on an average one ref will officiate 3 times. Since there is a long way to go, Dean could be back again
One would like to think it’s not coincidence, but I doubt it. Can’t imagine why he’s stil a PL ref anyway. They must be really short of quality – come to think of it, they are.
Since the Euro 2016 draw was announced “England vs Bale” headlines galore.
These dumb journos are the ones who are “nicking a living”… They can’t even name Wales’ best player.
He did that with Ozil too, playing him on the left last season and now he’s the best central attacking midfielder. Sly Wenger.
Oh Shi-.. he is playing Alexis Alexis on the left now D:
Good point. Didn’t many people think Wenger wanted to play him centrally when we signed him? Maybe we’re grooming him to be the “Aguero-level striker” we’re supposedly entitled to?
I think Ramsey should play in the middle from now on. I think Wenger should bring Sanchez back for the Bournemouth game. It’s not worth rushing him back. Man City played crap and got a lucky win in the end. We got a good enough team to beat them. Sp?rs lost to Newcastle. Overall a pretty good weekend of football.
Not sure about that. ‘Time on the pitch’, perhaps.
Still, what’s not to like. We win – go top. Sp*rs lose hilariously. MUFC still a shambles. And a Monday night match that – no matter what result – will feel as if it were delivered by Santa.
I for one would not mind giving up our top spot kn Monday night.
I dunno, I think a 5-5 draw with Chelsea 5-0 up at halftime and then being reduced to 7 men and having to settle for a point might be the best of all.
Add to that Vardy and Mahrez fluffing all their chances and losing their confidence and I’m in.
And John Cunt got stretched off field and missed whole season watching Chelshit relegated.
Chelsea to score NIL and concede as many as possible
liverpool, like citeh, lucky at the end of the game. Spuds and Man U, oh dear that was poor.
I still think a little purchased depth in January can’t hurt. Welbeck and Wilshere are back next, but Caz N’ Coq are much longer. I trust Wenger and co; I never heard of Cazorla, Monreal, Gabriel, Kos, Giroud, etc. before they came and look how happy we are with them.
I’d never heard of Wenger either!
Just love the way Guzan (in the headline pic) looks like the bloke who crawls out of the mattress in American Horror Story…
Isn’t Guzan an enlarged mini-me?
Just wish Ramsey would not lose ball so much on the edge of our box. If he cuts out the sloppiness he can drive us forward towards title. Will see how we get on against better teams before going overboard with Flamini and Ramsey in middle. Not sure they offer enough protection to back four. Fingers crossed. This could be our year. P.s Moyes just joined Terry and Owen in the cunt department.
Haha he looks like he’s one of the background artists in the graveyard bit in Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video.
He looks like he’s about to cry.
Im pleased about our title challenge finally looking like a possibility. But it does not feel like it is us improving that put us here, But more circumstancial because of Chelsea somehow turning from whine into piss, Uniteds billions expenditure has not paid off as much as you would expect so they are still in middle of rebuilding their club and city has been underperforming. We on the other hand are trotting along in our usual pace, only this season our usual pace seem like it could be enough to win it. That is great ofcourse, but i just hoped… Read more »
True enough. Though we may be 7 points better off than after 16 games last season, we’re level par when you look at our matches last year against the same opponents. No improvement there. To improve on last season we’ll need to win at Stoke and Sp*urs, where we lost then, and others like Liverpool and Everton where we could only draw. And compared with 2 years ago, we’re already 6 points worse off against the same or equivalent (ie promoted/relegated) teams. I agree we have a great shot at the title this season, but we need to cut out… Read more »
same with flamini coquelin jack, push them against the line and then playing in the middle, it helps them quicken everything, ball handling, passing, decision making and running as well
Arsenal fan from vietnam 🙂
Last year was not ideal cos we gotten a slow start. This is we have manage to the top the table nearing boxing day. What’s more is that we have almost half a squad coming back for the second half of the season. With almost the top teams of last season throwing points away this season, I’m really optimistic that this could really be our season. Two FA cups and maybe now a league title to boost.
*this year
The maturity and professionalism from the boys is what I’m loving. Villa had about corners in a row at one point and I could see per shouting waving around his arms getting the lads in position and it was dealt with well it was villas only hope really at 2-0 down, and we shut them out well and stayed together to see out the danger. Every player is putting in thier shift, great time now to do it, I think city are our only real competition they will probably get stronger later in the season but I think it might… Read more »
3 corners I meant
I love Santi, but I much prefer having a fit and firing Ramsey in central midfield. I hope Jack can find some consistent fitness so he can play the Cazorla role if he ever decides to leave or retire. Having the option of Ramsey or Wilshere playing alongside the Coq would bring a new dimension to the midfield. If not, maybe Arsene can find a younger player that could be as good as Cazorla some day.
I wanted someone to step up in the face of our mounting injury crisis and am so glad that Ramsey and Giroud have done just that. Theo is working his way back to fitness with every game and I expect him to be firing on all cylinders soon as well. As long as Ozil keeps his fine form going, we’ll be able to ride out these injuries Blues.
Ramsey following in Parlours footsteps:
The Caerphilly Pele!