A guest post by Kelly Woods @kmwoods02
Aaron Ramsey had his worst game in 12 months against Everton. He tried too hard. He forced things. Yes, he scored a goal, but don’t miss the fact that his performance was poor. And speaking of goals, I’m worried that he’s publicly admitted that he set himself a target of 20 goals this season. Whoa, there, son. Remember, it’s not about you. I know you want to start taking games by the scruff of the neck, but remember to just play your game.
These are all things that have come across my Twitter timeline since Saturday’s game. And I follow positive, considered people, who really do support our players. I know they do. And I respect and value all of them and their opinions – at least I do since I cleaned up who I follow. I cannot imagine what the rest of Twitter is saying, and I really don’t want to try. But if you will, let me articulate how I disagree with almost everything in that first paragraph. And to ask that we consider what it is that we really want from players.
First let me get this out of the way – Aaron was not at his effervescent best against Everton. I support, but I’m not blind. The whole team was out of sorts, and most of what he tried didn’t come off. Also true of other players as well. But let me point out a few things, courtesy of the stats-tastic 7amKickoff and his By the Numbers column for Arseblog:
Out of 69 passes attempted (the most for the team), 12 were misplaced. All but 2 of those misplaced were attacking passes, trying to create a chance. 5 of them were in prime areas, where goal conversion rates are high. One of the aforementioned 2 was just horrible – it went straight to an Everton player and almost gave me a heart attack. Only 4 tackles attempted, 2 of which were successful, and no dribbles. And no chances created. Also, there was that goal.
Ok, so what do stats show? Not the whole story, I’m well aware of that. Aaron’s defensive game was a bit weak and his attacking game was ineffectual on the whole. I think that had a lot to do with not having Arteta next to him, and trying to compete with Jack and Alex for space in the middle. But the question remains – what was he supposed to be doing in this game, and did he do it?
I think we should all come to grips with this fact: Aaron is a flair player. He will always try the Hollywood pass. Some seem to think that he’s changed somehow, that he doesn’t do that anymore. And they see yesterday’s performance as a reversion to a previous flawed way of playing. Nonsense. He has always been this player. By all accounts it’s been so since he was 8 years old. Stories of him demanding the ball from older teammates abound. “Let me do it” has always been his way. His off-pitch personality belies this fact, perhaps, as some don’t expect shy, quiet, introverts to behave this way. But it’s been said of him forever that he “expresses himself on the pitch”.
But, Kelly, I hear you say. Arsene said he told him to simplify his game. To go back to basics. True. But Aaron said this in an interview when asked about that:
“It was a difficult period for me where things weren’t happening the way I would like them to, and he called me in and just told me to simplify my game and get my confidence back that way…I did that for a few games, and then obviously you get more confident as every game goes on, and, yeah, I’m thankful for that.” (emphasis added)
That says to me that simplifying his game was not intended to be a permanent change. At least he didn’t interpret it that way. And Arsene had this to say Saturday:
“He has the engine and he gambles on getting in the box a lot and he has that timing to get where you need to be. He got rewarded like these kind of players do.”
“Gambles.” He gambles. He takes risks. He gets rewarded. He has a “can’t win if you don’t enter” mentality. He has said that he wants to improve his ability to take big games by the scruff of the neck and change them. He has goal targets that he has set for himself. But somehow, all that is now being seen as a potential liability, some sort of indication that he is putting himself above the team. Don’t we want a player that is ambitious? That tries to change games? That wants to score? What do we want, if not that? One of the biggest complaints I hear in games like yesterday is “Somebody DO something! Move, or something!” Yet Aaron tries to do just that, and he has a “poor” game, because it doesn’t come off.
I know I am really preaching to the choir here. This is a supporting group of people, many of whom told me yesterday not to worry, that he just had an off day. But here’s the thing. I’m not worried about him. I’m worried about us. This is exactly what I was afraid would happen. His miraculous exploits last season were a joy to watch. But they won’t continue – at least not like that. He is a marked man now. Teams have found out he is good, he will be given much less room to operate. And he is, by his own admission, still trying to improve his game. I’m confident he will continue scoring us goals. But all this means mistakes will happen. Do we really want to start down the road about how badly he’s played, how he’s struggling for form? Why do we do this? “Uh oh, the old Ramsey is rearing his head. Hope this doesn’t mean last season was a fluke.” It’s like we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the bad thing to happen to us. Optimism reigns, until it doesn’t.
Here’s my fear. Suppose it doesn’t change? Suppose the next game is the same as Everton – he does a few things brilliantly, but at the same time lots of things don’t come off? What will we say then? Because the haters and naysayers will start in – they’ve already started I would imagine. Despair that we thought we had a “world-class” player, but of course we can’t have nice things, so look, he’s being shit again. I’m steeling myself for that, and I’m ready to defend him. I hope you are, too.
Positively Arsenal 
yes i know you dont care what he says buddy….i was not being personal… i was only trying to show how it takes two to tango really…yes durham talks shit but theres a ‘market’ for it…… sadly.
as for dynamo fulham….hate them so much i cant bear to watch or vision drogba and mou fucking us again ..and this time with our son being their maestro…i will die of sadness if they win the league……this is where all them little shits wenger has nortured and trained fucking stand up and respond not only to the challenge but take it all the way and reward their manager for their well set up lives and careers.
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Look, buddy, I know you weren’t being personal! Hehe.
I understand, I think most do too. Remember a certain hack on the Clock End ducking George’s question on hacks that say they are arsenal fans trolling arsenal fans for clicks?
As for the F Word, for someone with Catalan DNA to end up playing for that Gazprom franchise in Fulham, with its particular goose stepping history, it doesn’t get funnier then that. But to conclude all I can add is, look, be glad that at the least you don’t have family that work for that accursed club, like poor old me. Gr*tdammit my sister was even teaching a Gazprom youth player at school. The shame, the shame…
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hall of fame
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Interesting team, who would come in for Theo and Ramsey tomorrow?
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lol..youre so nasty to cesc…. he called us …and we said…”no thanks, we have jack, we have mikel, we have alex” ( insert a ton of smiles…why are they banned by the way? who decides that? we should vote. i ask for a forum referendum…a forumendum … )
yes yes yes …i get it….we cant have others thinking its ok to betray and fuck off and that they can come back as soon as they flash their thighs to our direction …… i accept that…but please dont tell me he wouldnt fit in our system or that him and ozil and aaron cant play together …please
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“My only regret is that he left”
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fins i would argue that the cl is so important to wenger that he will go with his most trusted personnel. i see flamini and rosicky and jack at midfield, i see per and i see kons , i see monreal debouchy …. granite. then obviously ozil will play and sanchez and it all depends on whether he employs sanogo or cambell. ….you see anything else?
im happy with a scenario of flam jack kicking the shit out of everyone and allowing rosi to press and assist in a more traditional straight forward 4213 slowly becoming 424 with front four forming diamond even…..(haha….???) . this will be known from now on as the ….”slow laser gun” formation…first perfected in chile…..
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wtf?????? how dare i?????
santi for fucks sake..he will play!!!!
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ok, im ready now … ill go for chesney, mertesacker, konscielny monreal debuchy, then jack, flamini and rosicky in mid and front trio of santi ozil sanchez. formation 4213.
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Hunter I’ve got no idea what to expect tomorrow. I’ll be nervous, that much I do know.
Afobe makes it 3-0 to Mk Dons against ManU! I’ll take that to be a good omen.
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Three defeats in a row for LVG
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< two defeats and a draw
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does any other team have as many players whose names end with a ‘y’
debuchy
konscielny
chesney
rosicky
diabby
ramsey
gnabry
Y OH Y are they so many ? is it statistically possible ? …is this some ideological secta forming in the club ?
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ha! they lost again? …sack him !!!
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Woo hoo!
It’s a goal Afobe won’t forget in a hurry. 4-0. Great stuff from the graduate.
Time to activate the buy back clause haha
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Is anyone watching the carnage at the MK Dons stadium? Afobe with 2 goals against Man U.
MK Dons playing with discipline and passing the ball around with confidence. Van Gaal – welcome to English football!
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Ahh Fins! He’s only on loan.
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Just on loan? Mwahahaha
AFOBE!
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The Man U players should of at least been a match for MK Dons, not out played and outclassed the way they have. Telling the players that they can leave, may not have be a motivator for the players picked, but they should of been playing for their next big pay day at least!
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Let’s not gloat too much yet, lest we end up with egg on our own faces. We have our own tricky test to get past tomorrow and I always worry until the final whistle blows. I’m sure manure will say it’s a reserve team and it means one less distraction from really going for the league.
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watching van gaal signing autographs while he wants to go to the dressing room and beat the players up is hilarious i have to say. ..and that mk dons chairman… cult figure.
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Well well well,
That was some light relief from the usual Gooner angst.
Our boy Afobe looked handy.
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no gloating just appreciating Afobe’s hard work on his way back from serious injury *coughs*
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Van gall can only blame himself.
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Pass,
That was Utd’s only realistic chance of silverware gone in tatters tonight.
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Fuck yeah, Afobe.
I just watched Celtic get knocked out of the CL by Maribor, a nice, hard to break down team from Slovenia.
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Gains
There was an element of natural justice in Celtic loosing tonight.
Scenes if they get in same group as Legia Warsaw in a Europa Lge.
Maribor were tidy and fully deserved their win.
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Man United have no distractions now. I tip them to win the league.
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I’m putting miney on Maribor to draw every group game they play in Slovenia. I love teams from the Balkans.
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Passenal
While I appreciate it’s not good to gloat to much there’s a big difference from being knocked out of CL by a tough side (and entering Europa Cup) than being humiliated by MK Dons in the C.O.Cup.
FA Cup is their best chance if they do not improve their defence.
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I bet Man Ure wishes it had a project youth to fall back on right about now. They didn’t produce a kid that was worth a shit since the golden generation. I wish Arsene would buy Danny Wellbeck.
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Apparently Giroud is out until 2015. WTF? The injury gods really must hate us. Another season in which we will comfortably top the injury league tables. I feel truly sorry for Giroud who has once again proving doubters wrong left and right and probably would’ve gotten very close to the mythological 30 goals a season that are apparently very, very important. (Can someone remind me who decided that and why it’s exactly 30 and not 25, 31 or 29?)
Well, I am putting my money on Sanogo to take his position and to be honest, I think he can do it. He’s the only option we have in the squad who can play the Giroud role and I feel that once he gets his first goal, the floodgates will be opened. A bit like Aaron who had a period of about a year (after scoring against Utd to bring us victory) where he’d miss the easiest of chances week in, week out and now he’s the most dangerous midfielder in the league. Sanogo is strong, he can bully defenders, he can create space for others, he is good in the air and he keeps getting in the right positions. Just need someone to check behind the sofa for Thierry’s old boots.
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Flappy looks like a rock next to De Gea doesn’t he?
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Where did you read it was until 2015?
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@Gains
I bet many Utd fans wish Fergie would’ve done an Arsene in his last years and tried to get the club ready for the future as opposed to papering over the cracks for one last hurrah.
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@Gains
Arseblog News who quoted the Mirror.
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awesome post alabama as were the ones preceding it, great too see steww back, I ‘ kn love the sunshine bus its the only way to ride. thanks everyone for all the posts, and comments too, it’s keeping me in the loop with some real football talk all the way in nz.
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(Can someone remind me who decided that and why it’s exactly 30 and not 25, 31 or 29?)
look mate….this is not a playground. we have scientific evidence that the optimum season for Giroud is a minimum return of 28.73 goals. We have created our own formulas to reach that ‘mythological’ number. Who are you to come here like that and abolish years of research and hard work ?
and please dont talk like that about uncle alex. he set up a chain of events that secured united;s future. rock of gibraltar. yeah bebeh…
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heh ok, seriously now. see how all managers ask for ‘time to build’ even with 130m budgets to spend on players? should that not teach our silly fans a thing or two? we were building a whole club from scratch and the morons were asking for finished articles to go dominate home and abroad….
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Delicious seeing Mike Riley’s and Coward Webb’s faces watching last night’s game in the stadium.
Of course they were there in their official PGMOL capacity, and not as MANU fan boys, at all. at all. no sir-ee.
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In the online q for the tiny totts game – fingers crossed!
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George my comments seem to come through sporadically. I’ve switched email also.
Fins, sorry mate I had pulled a hammy. I posted last night on my way out the door, hadn’t realised it didn’t show.
Afobe eh? Cat. Pigeons. That’s going to give the twitterati something to complain about.
Is it just me but with, Afobe (I hope we get him back and he makes it), Campbell, Sanogo and Afobe we have some fantastic young strikers?
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Spurs ticket bought!
Despite best efforts of Arsenal’s online ticket office to make a mess of the transaction.
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” arsenal miss out on kostas manolas”
miss out? …… LOL.. …..arsene knows …10-12 m for an idiot defender like that? hahaha
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had cambell in his pocket in the wc…….and we want cambell to dominate epl and score 20+ in his first season? …as lone striker / falco ennea/ inverted ten ?? ahahahahahaha …
beyond….
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Campbell was knackered by the Greece game, he could not run after five minutes of the contest. The reserve was empty.
That’s why it was so easy to work out that he’d be on the same fitness curve as the injured Chambo following pre-season, an easy guess that they’ve been giving JC extra fitness training.
What does it all mean? I’ve got no idea.
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els
*BOoooooooo*
*hissssssssss*
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yeah well …we should have beaten them….costa rica…who the fuck are they ?….that game should have been a 4-0…then they were down to 10 and for 50 mins and that mongol bastard who got signed for fulham couldnt fucking finish……i have always maintained we should never have olympiacos players in the national squad…… 2004 triumph was all pana and aek players.
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and then….the manager (???!!!) gets sent off at penalties….such a clown….. instead of keeping his cool and ordering boss legend kara to take last penalty… they left it to that idiot with the mullet….talk about missed opportunity.
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Any news and thoughts on the officials tonight?
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