Aaron Ramsey has had a very up-and-down season thus far with Arsenal. Thrust into the spotlight following the departures of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, and burdened with even more pressure to perform following Jack Wilshere's ankle injury, Aaron Ramsey has unfortunately not been able to quite live up to all the hype. To be fair to him though, its almost impossible to live up to it when many fans are hoping desperately that you'll be able to produce the kind of magic Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Jack Wilshere, all players significantly more skilled than Ramsey, produced on a regular basis for Arsenal. Still, even by the regular standards set for a starting Arsenal midfielder, Aaron Ramsey's performances have not been impressive, and have seen him replaced by Tomas Rosicky of all people. Surprisingly, the Czech international's performances in place of Ramsey have actually not been too bad. Yet, despite his current displacement from the starting lineup, an interesting trend has emerged: When Aaron Ramsey plays well, so do Arsenal. To provide an empirical measure of this, we'll take a look at Goal.com's Player Ratings for the matches in which Aaron Ramsey has played in this season. (Just as a note, I'm not endorsing Goal.com's Player Ratings as the end-all be all determination of a player's performance in a particular game; they are just the most convenient and consistent player ratings accessible to me. Any other football website's player ratings would probably work fine as well.) In Arsenal's league losses and draws this season, Aaron Ramsey has garnered the following player ratings: 6.0 (in the draw with Newcastle), 5.5 (in the loss to Liverpool), 6.0* (in the loss to Manchester United), 7.0 (in the loss to Blackburn), 6.5 (in the loss to Tottenham). In Arsenal's league wins this season however, Ramsey has earned the following player ratings: 7.0 (in the win over Swansea) and 7.5 (in the win over Bolton). A couple of notes about the data first: First, Goal.com's ratings of players tends to be a bit harsher when they lose and easier when they win. Secondly, in the game marked with an asterisk, Aaron Ramsey was actually the highest rated Arsenal player, so his rating may be a bit misleading here. Nevertheless, even with these points in mind, it appears that there is at least some correlation here. When Ramsey plays well, more often than not, so do Arsenal. In Arsenal's 3-0 win over Bolton, Ramsey probably put in his best performance of the season, and thus it comes as no surprise that that was not only Arsenal's best performance of the season but also their only victory thus far by greater than a one-goal margin. Ramsey's performance against Swansea was also fairly solid, helping Arsenal pick up their first league win of the season. On the other hand, in the loss against Liverpool, Ramsey was poor and a very frustrating individual to watch. His inadequate performance culminated with his own goal which allowed Liverpool to finally get on the score sheet after controlling play. Similarly, in the loss against Tottenham, despite his goal, Ramsey was unable to really create or even control play, and this cost his team dearly, despite his equalizing goal. As of now, the sample size is too small to definitely conclude that Ramsey's performances are strongly tied to Arsenal's success. If Rosicky stays fit and in the starting lineup, Ramsey may not be needed and find himself limited in Arsenal's push to success this season. But if yesterday's performance against Marseille is anything to go by, I expect that Ramsey will be given plenty of opportunities to improve and stake his claim to be in Arsenal's starting lineup, especially while Jack Wilshere continues to recover from injury and Abou Diaby tries to regain match fitness. And as he does so, I am confident that the correlation between Ramsey's performances and Arsenal's success will become stronger and stronger.
It's more to do with the fact that losing sides have bad ratings and winning sides have good ones. It's not independent from that.
Yeah so far this Season Ramsey has been poor but he does show glimpses of real class from time to time which make me think he will be a top player. The good thing about Ramsey is that he shows ambition in his passing, he is actually willing to attempt the more difficult pass as he knows he has the ability. The thing is though Arteta has also been poor so choosing our midfield is not easy. (also where the **** is Diaby?) Hopefully the goal against Marseille with give him some confidence to push on for the rest of the Season.
More importantly He scores against Utd, next day bin laden dies. He scores against Marseille, next day Gaddafi dies.
I would go with -----Wilshere----Song-----Diaby------. Would be a our most mobile/energetic midfield.
He is an OK player, but not a leader by any stretch of imagination. Song-Arteta-Wilshere will probably be our first choice. And if Rosicky keeps his current form, I can not see Ramsey ahead of him. At the moment I would prefer Song-Rosicky-Wilshere, to be honest. But I would put Ramsey ahead of Diaby. Rambo has a lot of time though on his side, he is still very young. By the way nobody mentioned that his first touch before he scored in Marselle was quite bad, he recovered well, but only just.
Ramsey has more potential than wilshere, and was immense before that horrible injury, jack is a earlier peaker though, if it wasn't for that injury, Rambo would be top 3-5 cm in the PL easily.
I see you like Ramsey, but to me as a neutral in this case, as i have no preference between them and wish both of them well, Wilshere is just class above and most probably always will be because of his character and leadership qualities. His passing range and quality, natural understanding of the game and his vision are currently well our of Rambo's reach. Rambo played a couple of decent games before his injury, scored one good goal, but I do not remember anything close to "immense". The moment of truth will be when Wilshere comes back from his injury. But something tell me Jack will be alright.
I would say Verminator is your x-factor.. If he returns in few weeks and fit for the ENTIRE season - You can push even for the second place with City & Ures..
Wilshere is a class above Ramsey. But then Wilshere is a class above most. I think it's fair to say he's already our 'second best' player (after RVP) and once he adds goals to his game will be amongst the best midfielders in Europe. At only 19 he's got the potential to be an absolute World beater. Our midfield is badly missing some creativity and Wilshere's return cant come soon enough. Having Vermaelen back will be a big boost also.
It's an interesting debate when it comes to Ramsey. In my Opinion he is a better attacking player than Wilshire but Jack is a more exciting player to watch because he plays at the tempo of someone on the edge (a midfield rooney but with more class). Ramsey before his injury was truely fantastic and I believe that his slow start to the season is about to change. I have read some comments on here stating that he is rubbish and should have gone out on loan. All I can say is thank god those posters don't manage our club. Ramsey just needed time to get his confidence back and I believe after his last minute winner against marseille he is well on his way to being the player we all love.
