It may seem as if the Welshman turned into a superstar overnight.
Something decidedly odd appears to have happened this season as Arsenal’s young and inconsistent midfielder Aaron Ramsey turned into a world beater.
However, this isn’t really the whole story and there is a lot more to the Welshman’s rise to Gunners stardom than a bit more training over the summer.
Football fans have short memories, as is proven by the way opinions swing this way and that based solely on one result – for example Chelsea losing to FC Basel on the Tuesday signaled a crisis, but beating Southampton on the Sunday was the start of a new successful dawn.
Also, when a player is tarnished with a certain brush it takes time for that image to go away and Ramsey’s rapid rise to a high profile at the Emirates Stadium did little to help the 22-year-old.
After impressing at Cardiff City the youngster made the £4.8m switch to north London in 2008 and some occasional loose passing and lack of confidence saw the player immediately damned.
On February 27 2010 Ramsey suffered a shocking injury that would do little to help progress, when a terrible tackle from Stoke City’s Ryan Shawcross caused a compound break.
This set the Wales international back around a year and out of sight, out of mind was how most treated the absence of the player – all but Arsene Wenger.
It’s a testament to the Frenchman that Ramsey is now the star he is, because despite what many think the midfielder’s statistics have never been that bad.
The starlet’s key passes have not varied too much since coming to the Emirates, with the 2011/12 season in fact being the player’s highest total, of 1.6 a match (compared to 1.4 this term).
Ramsey’s passing accuracy in the league is also the lowest it has been for four years, although admittedly in the Champions League there is significant improvement.
The point isn’t that the midfielder is not actually doing that well this campaign, it’s that the Welshman was never as bad as things were portrayed.
Towards the end of the 2012/13 season Ramsey was in sparkling form as Wenger’s men reached fourth spot in the league against the odds.
Of course the youngster’s goal-scoring has been impeccable this season, with 13 strikes already in all competitions – over half of all his goals for the club to date.
Defensively Ramsey has been more involved as well, making an average of 4.5 tackles a game; a statistic which is more than double of any previous year.
For some it may seem like an overnight success, but the reality is the talent has always been there and Wenger was the only one who stuck with it.
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