Arsene Wenger says Aaron Ramsey suffered a calf strain during tonight’s 2-1 defeat to Watford.
The midfielder lasted only 20 minutes before being replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and while it’s too early to tell how long he’ll be sidelined, it’s fair to assume that the Welshman probably won’t be available for Saturday’s trip to Stamford Bridge.
“He has a calf strain,” Wenger confirmed in his post-game press conference. “We don’t know how long he’ll be out for yet.”
The injury drew a line under a pretty underwhelming cameo by Rambo who deflected Younes Kaboul’s free-kick past Petr Cech and was also guilty of surrendering possession in the build-up to the visitors’ second goal.
To be fair, he wasn’t the only player in red having a bit of a mare at the time…there were nine others giving him a run for his money.
Anyway, before the snide comments about Ramsey are posted by our angrier readers…we’d like to remind everyone that we’re very much in the midst of a midfield crisis.
Wilshere isn’t an option (stop your moaning at the back…yes, we know he probably should have stayed), Santi Cazorla is injured, Mohamed Elneny is in Gabon with Egypt and Granit Xhaka is banned for two games. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also picked up a knock this evening which left him hobbling about the pitch for a few minutes; he still completed the 90 minutes.
As things stand it’s the Ox and Coquelin in the centre of the park on Saturday; unless we decide to throw the Jeff and Ainsley Maitland-Niles into the mix. Hmm, probably not.
No shit
Maybe we can just play without a midfield, like we finished the game tonight?
We started it like that too.
Why do our players get injured too often?….
Thats life in football shit happends
Blogs, off-topic I know (I’d rather just forget Ramsey’s performance to be honest), but I wasn’t able to access the blog – & therefore the match MBM – through out the game. Tried repeatedly directly and through the link on Facebook. Neither worked, though the news site was always available. Just FYI.
Maitland-Niles can do the job. A step up yes but pressure makes diamonds from coal and all that
Calf strain? Oh, I just thought he was suffering from mediocre-itis.
Mediocre-itis? It looked something much more acute than that
He had a full on dose of being completely fucking shit.
What the fuck are we going to do with this lad?
Sell him if we can, if not give him away
Ramsey can fuck off he was awful inspite of his injury. Hopefully he is done for the season. That is harsh but he is such shit.
Although he frustrates me too and I feel more and more like we are done with him I can’t go along with abuse and even less taking any joy from him being injured.
If you are refering to Ramsey they should sell him..
Sell him to China. We should get an easy 25m Pounds for him if not more.
I’ll get things started then….
No one gives a shit about Ramsey playing or not. He is just an awful player at the top level.
It’s so Arsenal to go from having too many options in midfield to an injury crisis. Anyway as long as we count on injury-prone players to stay fit, we will never win consistently.
Any new non-injury-prone player once joining this team will soon get injured and more often. Maybe it’s part of contract package.
In the last 4 seasons, Ramsey has had the same number of elite years as Danny Drinkwater. Danny Drinkwater would not be fit to start in our midfield just because he played well last season, Ramsey is certainly not fit to play there based on his performances 3 years ago.
I think I’ll bring my boots to the bridge on Saturday… I could get a start.
I don’t mind a missed control or a bad pass, but his complete lack of running for the second goal to make up for the mistake was criminal. He jogged back like he was Denilson reincarnated. Even having a bad game doesnt mean you can’t run. There was only one player left to score and Deeney was just left alone. Shocking.
For me the debate is over. Ramsey can’t play as a midfielder. You can’t rely on him to do a shift or have any kind of team perspective. His game has reduced to goals and flicks. On Saturday, Ox had the kind of game playing CM Ramsey hasn’t had in dog years. Somehow, I also get the feeling he resents the importance given to Alexis and Ozil as talismans.
It looked awful, but it also looked like he was limpimg backwards, I suppose he’d already suffered that injury.
I feel it is about time AW should seriously consider Ramsey’s role and his contribution to the team. It is evident he doesn’t fit in our system as effectively as Cazorla or even Xhaka do. His injury record (specially muscular injuries) is pretty bad. No doubt he is a talented player, but he is at that stage of his career where we need more from him than we are getting.
Agree. He complicates things needlessly when above all you want discipline, drive and presence in the centre of the field. He’s never there when you want him – either nursing injuries or up at the top trying to cop Giroud’s ass…
I’d much rather we give a youngster like Maitland Niles a chance than seeing the garbage he managed to produce in 20 minutes. Or playing Iwobi with Coquelin if Ox is injured (hopefully he’s ok)
Like Walcott, I can count on one hand the number of good games he’s had in the last 5five years. Sorry.
I keep waiting on him to put a great performance out there this year and have been disappointed each time. He looked so energetic for Wales at the Euros that I couldn’t wait for him to get back on our squad. Silly me for comparing a one off international tourney with the rigors of a weekly grind of a league. Guess he just doesn’t have the endurance to consistently put out good performances.
I wouldn’t say endurance. Ramsey has a really good engine and a lot of stamina. Gotta give him that. I think that ever since his exploits in the 2013-14 season he has been trying to replicate his attacking form. That explains all the fancy stuff he tries (but fails). He is desperate for goals and assists. And in that attempt he has become really poor at his positional play and has forgotten what his role as a CM truly is. Of course periodic injuries and him playing in much more advanced position for Wales hasn’t helped.
Good news!
Maybe Ramsey had a brain strain? Then again, you can’t strain something you don’t have.
God, he’s crap.
If Watford can sell Idalgho for £20m to China….how much cash could we get for OUR deadwood??!
Ramsey, Gabriel, Giroud, Cech, Gibbs…..that’s about £150m. China will buy any old shit for top dollar!
Yeah if Oscar is worth €60m then perhaps a similar fee would attract Ramsey. But I doubt Aaron would want to play in ??
Do they need wailing, boorish fans, too? If so, they can have you for free.
Didn’t Ramsey make the best eleven in the European Championship’s? He is far from a shit player, he doesn’t suit our current system. So yes we probably should sell him but he is far from ‘shit’.
He very much is shit when he plays for Arsenal. That’s all that matters to me.
Nobody has ever said that he was untalented. He has, however, been unable to adapt to the needs of the team.
Having a preferred position is all well and good, but you had better be really excellent there if you’re gonna be fucking atrocious at everything else.
There’s also the issue of him being fucking atrocious even in his preferred position.
Ramsey had a large responsibility for both goals. Literally half-arsing the first and the second, whatever about the throw-in, you just can’t let that happen in theiddle of the park. If he only performs like that he’ll not be missed. But apart from this horror show, he was incrementally returning to form. It’s a miss but I hope the Ox can step if not injured for the next game. I know it’s massive divider, but without being angry and bitter, while recognizing his obvious talent and potential, I’m alright with him leaving this summer as for me he’s a bit… Read more »
He is an amazing talent. All he needs is a slight attitude change. He’s one of the best box to box in the league but only when he keeps it simple. He thinks he has the technique to beat people one on one but sadly that’s not his game the sooner he realized it the better.
I think you’re right in everything you say. But I think perhaps what separates you and me on this issue is that I’ve lost patience and belief that he will change his game for the better. You expect to wait when people have to add to their game, not when people have to pay more focus to the fundamentals. I would love to be wrong. But if Ozil signs he is not getting many games at No 10, and even if he did you’d fancy that Iwobi would push him and he might seek a replacement for Ozil were he… Read more »
I’ve always loved and hoped that Ramsey would be able to pull it all together in the last few seasons like he did all that long time ago.. Jenkinson had a bad run and he gets dropped like a stone and almost sold.. Yet Ramsey has 1 good game in 4 if he’s lucky.. I just don’t know anymore.. Maybe he needs a loan.. I think chambo was excellent when he came on.. So positive despite waiting for extra time in the first half to end Haha.. Our inability to take out chances didn’t help..
A loan? He is 26 years old. He should be in his best years but it still feels like he is a teenager in development stage. I think it is safe to say that the Ramsey ship has sailed, and we need to cash in as soon as possible.
Like how did we actually end up in a situation where 5 out of 6 midfielders will be ineligible.
Iwobi was brilliant on the left wing. We stuggled to create much after the Coq came off and Iwobi went back into midfield. Like the attack and don’t mind the defence but the midfield is too lightweight to win anything. Cazola has magic in his boots but he’s usually out injured. Ramsey (responsible for both goals v Watford, hang your head in shame) and the Ox are too injury prone and even when fully fit only really do the business in fits and starts. The Coq is decent but Xhaka and Elneny are too limited. Maitland-Niles and Reine-Adelaide are too… Read more »
His inability to stay fit is a worry.
Would he have went off with a calf strain if we were 2nil up,doubt it.
The most damning thing you can say about Ramsey’s performance yesterday is that if someone had been paid to blow a game (which is nuts, I know), he couldn’t have hurt his team much more than he did.
That was a shocking ratio of suck for time played.
In your assessment and blog post this morning, you mentioned that had the deflection come off of, say, Koscielny, the reaction would not have been so bad.
But there is a big difference between the two players because Ramsey’s attempt at a block was half-arsed, pretty much like everything he does, which is why it is so infuriating and he gets so much stick.
That is the fundamental problem for the issues so many fans have with Ramsey. He is too comfortable.
Ramsey is our problem..whenever we strat with him we made it difficult in the park ..he doesnt had the speed or craft what we needed at the middle ..he just slow down our game or make it uneasy for other players…he should be sold.
Jeff and maitlant can do better than what he offers to us…
I love Ramsey, but stats show you are correct
The midfield that won away at Southampton should have started. You don’t change a winning team. Also, I guess time up for Ramsey. It’s only in Arsenal that a player of his performance can still be playing till date despite all his drawbacks.
I am a huge Ramsey supporter, and I loved the way he came back slowly from the Shawcross incident. I couldnt have been happier for him in the 2013-14 season and his FA Cup heroics. But, its hard to overlook how much worse our results have been this season when he has played, particularly when he has started. To back up my suspicions, I ran some stats on Whoscored.com. All Arsenal Games All competitions: 34 games, 73 pts, 2.1 ppg EPL: 23 games, 47 pts, 2.0 ppg Arsenal Games When Ramsey Does Not Play All competitions w/o Ramsey appearances: 17… Read more »
my mistake on the last line. We are W2 L2 and D2 when he has started in the EPL, I was looking at something else