AARON RAMSEY : THE RESURGENT GAME-CHANGER

There’s nothing quite like an individual making a comeback. Beating the odds, proving critics wrong, making believers out of cynics or rising like a phoenix from the ashes - there’s no denying that it makes for good viewing and renews hope for causes that are seemingly lost.
Aaron Ramsey embarked on his own road to redemption this season and so far, the grunts and sighs sounded whenever he took the pitch in the last campaign have been replaced by cheers every time he gets on the ball this term.
Ramsey’s career trajectory is one that is all too familiar. A bright young talent, his progress was curtailed by injury, before he returned on a wave of good feeling and optimism. However in Ramsey’s case, as his form over the next two seasons failed to match that which his pre-injury career had appeared to promise, the benefit of doubt afforded to him by the Arsenal faithful ebbed away, the sympathy gradually morphing into frustration.
But just when it appeared that Ramsey’s time at Arsenal may have been drawing to an ignominious close as the club began an earnest summer clear out of peripheral figures, he has undergone a resurgence as spectacular as it has been surprising. Not only has his scoring rate shot through the roof but he has more than held his own against a fit-again Jack Wilshere and record signing Mesut Özil.
This astonishing turnaround, which saw him awarded Premier League Player of the Month for September, was nowhere better exemplified than in the closing exchanges of the game against Norwich, a match in which he scored once again after embarrassing the Canaries’ defence with a mazy run. With the self-confidence and finesse usually only associated with the world’s elite band of flair players, he casually pirouetted between two challenges before nonchalantly back heeling the ball into Özil’s path.
While a few fans in hindsight would point out that Ramsey may have been the steal of the summer if a club took a chance on him in the transfer market, the truth is that he wouldn’t have been sold on the cheap anyway, despite his extended poor run of form. And that’s primarily down to the one man who believed in him from the onset and even through all his turmoil and hardship - Arsene Wenger.
The Frenchman described Ramsey as "a player with a fantastic engine, good build, good technique and good vision" when he first signed him. He saw the potential he had and never lost sight of that. Perhaps his faith in Ramsey’s talent and his belief that he would return to his old self was exemplified when he offered him a new long-term contract right in the middle of his rehabilitation. Pragmatically speaking it wasn’t the best choice after all, the youngster had endured a career-threatening injury. However, he took a chance on Ramsey and the player in turn seems desperate to repay the manager in full.
People have raved about the £42 million man, Mesut Özil and rightly so. However, make no mistake, Ramsey’s vibrancy has had a huge part to play in Arsenal’s fantastically frantic style of play this season. While Özil is the more cultured element of their midfield, Ramsey’s injection of pace, drive and tenacity has made Arsenal impossible to live with particularly when the two midfielders work in tandem.
His goals have been very handy indeed but perhaps Ramsey’s biggest contribution to Arsenal’s midfield is his mobility. The ability to carry the ball forward or the desire to make forward runs time and again are qualities that should never be taken for granted because it’s that kind of penetration from midfield that so many teams, even the good ones, desperately lack and Manchester United’s flat central midfield over the past couple of seasons can stand testament to that.
Ramsey’s also been equally influential in a defensive capacity. In fact, the Welshman has surprisingly made the most tackles in the Premier League this season. It’s no wonder that Wenger once referred to him as "an offense-minded Roy Keane" and "an all-round player, with a fantastic ability to cover distances". He has truly become ‘Aaron Ramsey, brilliant footballer’ in everyone’s eyes, rather than just ‘Aaron Ramsey, leg break victim’.
Every new performance shows more improvement. He has won over his detractors at home, and many on the outside. Now all that is left is to solve the solvable and maintain his form. So far we have seen this renewed Ramsey sustained for six months. It is not unrealistic to think we could be seeing it for the next 10 years. It’s a wonder what a bit of confidence can do.