Aaron Ramsey has played his last game for Arsenal after suffering a muscular injury during their Europa League quarter-final against Napoli. The midfielder pulled up feeling the back of his thigh in the 33rd minute and was replaced by Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
What a sad way for it to come to an end. After 11 years our top scoring Center midfielder of all time is literally limping out of the club. It’s a devastating blow for him and Arsenal. I saw a stat recently that we have averaged twice as many points per game with him this season, than without him. I’m not at all surprised.
The lad has scored or assisted 129 times in his 369 appearances for Arsenal.that’s better than a 1 in 3 games,direct contributions to a goal, outstanding for a center midfielder. And a center midfielder is exactly what he is. At times he has covered as attacking Mid and even as a wide forward, that is testament to his general overall value to the team. Under Arsene Wenger, when fit, he played. He played no matter who else was fit, he played somewhere.
His work ethic, professionalism and heart are everything anyone could ask from a professional football player.
I won’t go into his history and injury record because everyone knows all about it but I will say that without the initial leg smashing attack and the subsequent muscular problems that have blighted him, he would likely have doubled his goals and assists total.
He is a quiet ,well spoken ,polite family man, that was shown loyalty by Arsene Wenger and returned that loyalty in spades. I have never seen him shy away from the ball or put in less than 100% effort in the 11 years he’s been at the club. He is brave and adventurous on the ball and is almost always the player that has covered the most distance at the end of each game. When in midfield with Arteta he regularly was in the mid 90s in % passing stats. He is the complete box to box player.
On top of all that he is staggeringly good looking, immaculately well dressed and campaigns for animal welfare and other green topics. Seriously, what is not to like about the lad?
Yet despite all this “opinion on him is divided”. Why? Well I would suggest it’s because many of our fans are as thick as mince.
Now he is heading off to Juventus on £400k per week, so we don’t have to feel sorry for him, oh no, but we should feel sorry for ourselves. Why? Well because we could be losing or last legend, that’s why.
Football has changed and support has also changed, and not for the better. It used to be that if a player was committed to the club for a few years and scored ,or just contributed, to the winning of silverware, his legendary status was assured. But not anymore! Oh no, a few perceived bad games, an injury or a transfer can all lead to his status being revoked by our over demanding fans.They turn on, and turn their back on, players as quickly as they can scurry to their twitter accounts. That and the tendency for players to maximise their wages by moving, or the clubs wanting to profit from player sales, mean the day of the one team man is dead, It’s very hard to become a legend if a player only has a short window to cement their status.
Well Ramsey has put in the years, the effort and conducted himself with the class that put him firmly in the legendary status, and that’s before we add the two FA Cup winning goals. Add to this that he refused to shake Piers Morgan’s hand and allegedly sat RVP on his arse with a right hook and he is elevated to super legend.
So make no mistake Aaron Ramsey is an Arsenal legend, and perhaps the very last of them.
Goodbye, good luck and thanks for the memories sweet prince of Wales.
This is how I will always remember you.
Or as Bob might say
“Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin”
And of the game tomorrow, here’s Labo
Positively Arsenal 
the 50th BPL goal we have let in so far this season
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fuck me we are poor, slow, too many touches and no urgency
we need to bring on Nketiah and Iwobi, get Mkhitaryan and maybe Xhaka or Torreira off
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This is boring stuff from Arsenal….
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20 minutes to go
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Aubameyang misses a great chance once again, he don’t half miss a lot off good chances
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some urgency at last from our lads, 15 minutes to go
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kolasinac, guendouzi and iwobi coming on for Lichtsteiner, Mkhitaryan and Xhaka
we need a goal and still no time for Nketiah the only actual striker on the bench
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OptaJoe
Verified account @OptaJoe
21m21 minutes ago
50 – Arsenal have conceded at least 50 goals in consecutive top-flight campaigns for the first time since 1982-83/1983-84. Trouble. #ARSBHA
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Gundouzi hasn’t the brains he was born with
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mustafi booked for pointing out that Taylor is a knob
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brighton miss a sitter with 5 minutes to go
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its all alright though as Emery is waving his arms about like a demented cat
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only 3 minutes of stoppage time for us to save this game and maybe our top 4 hopes
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Not entertaining.
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Just about where we deserve to be….This is too dreary for me…
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My word. Painful. Hurts a lot to have gifted Spurs a CL slot when losing it would have been very damaging to them.
Frantic efforts later in game made it look like we’d been in energy conservation mode for much of the earlier action, and made that look a really poor calculation.
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FT: Arsenal 1-1 Brighton
we have completely thrown away top 4 in recent weeks, Emery is far too negative in his approach, and his attacking plan is downright boring.
4pts from our last 6 games, playing slow boring football, Joselite may need to win the Europa League this season to save his job, he has flopped when the pressure came on this season. In fact since the end of the 22 game unbeaten run back in middle of december we have been little short of shite, the most annoying thing is that among all that shite we have actually sparkled in a couple of big games, the talent in there, but the master tactician has sucked the attacking flair out of this team, without even the slightest hint of any improvement in the defense. Its pointless stuff.
Is the Arsenal job too big for Emery, we can only hope its not.
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The last few games in the league have been an abject pathetic surrender of opportunity.
Stupid pen you do not give this ref a chance like that.
Play some kids at burnleh its europa or bust. Win and i suspect stan will extend emerys contract. Anything less and emery will be on notice next season unless he seriously steps this team up.
The sad fact is over the last two seasons mediocrity has crept in.
Yet another appalling performance showing the folly of losing ramsey and trying bring in denis suarez!
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Another awful performance.
No urgency and no defence.
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Mandy I don’t see Emery getting a contract extension this summer even if we win the EL, we have a one year extension clause in his contract that can be triggered next summer, why give him an extension
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a fortunate win over Wafford and a draw v Brighton is all we have to show from our last 6 league games, that is a collapse of mega levels.
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Not enough breaking the lines, width or creativity.
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Eduardo, dont know for sure but guessing Stan prefers stability given the choice, and i would guess raul would quite like emery there as well.
A place in the ECL would give them an excuse to ward off any uncertainty something as flimsy as an extension clause would cause next season. If he by some chance wins the europa and does really well next season, could easily lose him at an undesired time. If he is a load of crap guess it doesnt matter
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Oops. Not what the doctor ordered. Being harsh I’d say picking Mikhitaryan and Lichsteiner as a right side combo is not the mark of tactical genius. I love the languid style of Ozil, I don’t love the way lesser talents copy that approach. All this season has shown is the over-achievment of AW and it is not surprising that an ordinary mortal has struggled.
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Oh Aaron where were you when we needed you.
Crazy Frustrating everything that happened today, the ref, the team, the manager I just want to forget it all.
If we weren’t playing in the Europa Thursday I’d be on the beach by now.
At least we know we will win at Burnley now 1-0
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Whether we win the EL or not, I am scared to think what it means to give Emery (and Raul) control over Arsenal’s transfers. There is no way I trust them to run Arsenal.
Sorry, I know this site is supposed to be positive.
We avoided a 4th straight PL loss.
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Btw, Valencia are beating the minnows of their league, Huesca, 5-0 at halftime. Coquelin is playing.
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What a disappointing end to the home season. There’s very little point in saying much more at this moment, but at least we still have the EL to pin our hopes on.
It was even more sad to say goodbye to Aaron than I expected and when he started crying, it was all I could do to hold myself together. Also sad, but not surprised to see the club offload Danny Welbeck at least he got a public acknowledgement of his departure. I’m slowly running out of players for whom I have an emotional connection other than, they wear the shirt of the team I support. I suppose in the long run, it’s better for my heart not to feel so emotionally invested. This season I have found myself watching quite dispassionately. I still hope we win, but if we don’t, I’m much more philosophical about it, brush it off and move on to the next one.
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I’m struggling to care too much about this game tbh. I’m not sure we’d have made top four even if we won it. It would still have required Chelsea or Spurs to fuck up next week and us not, and I’m not confident of any of that. All eggs in the EL basket now.
Today was all about Aaron for me, and I’m just now sort of recovering from the emotional overload. The thing I’m holding on to is how clear it is that he’ll always hold Arsenal in his heart. I believe we’ll see him back there one day, in some way. Juve is a pit stop, and he’ll give them his all, you can be sure of that. But he won’t love them like he loves Arsenal. Seeing him cry hurt, but it also made me certain of the bond. It goes both ways.
I’m sad we found out Danny is leaving in this way, but I’m glad he at least got an acknowledgment. It beats what some have gotten. They’ll miss him in the dressing room, too.
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