Since joining Arsenal over Manchester United back in 2008, Aaron Ramsey has had somewhat of an eventful time at the club. A bright youngster who was developing quickly, had a great attitude and then suffered from the Shawcross assult, had his place in the team taken by his Caring Cup team mate who had made a similar impact and then got his place back again

Good afternoon,

It is somewhat of a miserable day weather wise at the time of writing this. The cold, rain and darkness of the afternoon just adds to the lingering depression of Swansea last weekend.

The team are now preparing for a visit of Manchester United, a massive game and a chance to get us back on the straight and narrow and try and make up for our recent drop of crucial points. As you know, Thomas Vermaelen should be fit to play which is great but Mikel Arteta is still struggling for fitness and that is a bit of a concern but we can go into that at a later date.

I actually want to talk about Arteta’s midfield partner in crime, Aaron Ramsey.

Since joining Arsenal over Manchester United back in 2008, Aaron Ramsey has had somewhat of an eventful time at the club. A bright youngster who was developing quickly, had a great attitude and then suffered from the Shawcross assault, had his place in the team taken by his Carling Cup team mate who had made a similar impact and then got his place back again due to an unfortunate injury to Ramsey’s replacement, Jack Wilshere.

Aaron Ramsey has had plenty to deal with both physically and mentally and when he came back into the side at the end of last season you could see that he was still some way off his best form. Interestingly enough, his best display came against our next opponents in the same stadium. That game in May, Ramsey scored the winner and his last goal at the Emirates stadium so I hope that is a good omen for Sunday.

Ramsey has been inconsistent in his end product so far this season. At the start of the season I thought that Tomas Rosicky was in better form and gave the team more in terms of possession and end product, Ramsey was still finding his feet and was allowed the time to sharpen up and adjust to his new team mate who had arrived from Everton at the end of the transfer window.

Suddenly it all clicked for Ramsey and he was arguably the best player on the pitch at Stamford Bridge, where Arsenal produced our most satisfying victory of the season to date. He had a spring in his step, a confidence that was starting to shine through and his final ball was starting to come off.

Think of his first time clipped pass into Theo Walcott who then ripped Ashley Cole apart before Gervinho almost impossibly steered wide at the far post. It was Ramsey who carved Chelsea apart for our equaliser, threading through the eye of a needle to Gervinho who quickly made amends for his early miss by unselfishly squaring for van Persie.

It didn’t stop there for the Welshman, against West Brom at home his Cesc-esque pass behind the defence found the motoring Walcott on the right and van Persie eventually put us ahead on the day.

Aaron Ramsey’s engine has always been amazing, surely it has to be one of the best in the league without looking at the stats. His final pass has also been of top quality from what we had seen before his horrific injury, it was consistency that was his problem in the past but he was finally starting to get that.

In recent months, our squad has whittled down due to injuries and our crispness of pass has deserted us as well as the almost weekly rotation of our defence, especially the lack of natural full backs has made the team suffer and with that Aaron Ramsey’s form has dipped back to the inconsistencies of the early season.

Arsene Wenger has reminded us that this is pretty much his first real season as a regular and that his injury has affected his progress which is very true. He has lacked goals, especially for someone who often pushes up close to van Persie but what we tend to forget is his tender age of 20. Cesc Fabregas, the man who Ramsey has pretty much replaced positionally had the same issues when developing at Arsenal. He lacked composure and missed chances. As the saying goes, you have to start worrying when there are no chances to miss.

Ramsey’s ability to be in the right place at the right time has been remarkable. He has been thwarted by blocks, goalkeeping saves or by over eagerness. You get the feeling that once he gets a few in a short space of time then his confidence will grow and his input in the goals department will be quite considerable in the years to come.

So why has Arsene played Ramsey so often when we have someone like Tomas Rosicky sitting on the bench? It is a question I have muttered more than once, mainly because I still rate the Czech very highly and after thinking about it a little, I have come up with this conclusion.

Young players need to improve and develop. For that to happen, young players need the momentum of playing games. I look back at former youngsters since Arsene has been in charge at this great club and the obvious one is Cesc Fabregas. Patrick Vieira had left the club and so many cried out for an experienced player to come in yet Arsene stuck with his 17 year old and we all know how he turned out. Cesc Fabregas left Barcelona to get his chance and play football, to work on his weaknesses and improve his strengths.

Arsene dropped an experienced goal scoring striker in Davor Suker and replaced him with a 22 year old winger. What on earth was Arsene doing? In time we had the best striker in the world in my opinion.

Nicolas Anelka, Ashley Cole, Kolo Toure, Jack Wilshere, Alex Song and Robin van Persie are a few other examples of young players who were given a chance to develop on the job and then blossomed into International quality players. Not all of those players were seen as the answer at the time.

What has surprised me the most about Aaron Ramsey is his character. When we signed him, I didn’t know that he had the guts and mentality that he has. You can see it when he snarls at senior figures such as Robin van Persie when the Dutchman goes for a shot instead of finding Ramsey in a better position. He is not afraid to tell anyone that they should be looking for him. It is that belief and attitude that will take Ramsey a long way.

What will be interesting is what happens to the midfield when Jack Wilshere is match fit and totally free from his injury that has robbed him of the season so far. Mikel Arteta and Alex Song have formed the foundations for the Arsenal attack but both Wilshere and Ramsey are at the age where they need to play to develop. Rotating the two youngsters or leaving one of them out will not get the best out of someone and that isn’t Arsene’s way. Hopefully we do not have long to wait until we get the answer.

In other news Maurone Chamakh has vowed to stay and fight for his place at Arsenal. While technically he is no Robin van Persie, he has always had his heart in the right place. He clearly has an affection for the club and had so before he joined us. Anyone who has that will always be in my good books. His confidence seems to have suffered from his great start at the club but in all fairness to Chamakh, he has not had a chance to gain his form back in our strongest side. We have expected Chamakh to return to his best and come to life in second string sides in the Carling Cup along with other players who have been lacking games.

Obviously I hope I do not get to see Chamakh have a long spell in the first team because it would mean major bad news to a certain other player but if Chamakh had Walcott and Gervinho either side of him and Santos and Sagna on the overlap then I suspect that he would quickly get out of his funk.

The issue for me is that van Persie and Chamakh cannot play together in the same team and as long as van Persie is fit then Chamakh will not be given the platform to be at his best. There is many calls for a back up striker for van Persie and I see the logic in that but if van Persie continues to be van Persie then wouldn’t new striker have the same issues as Chamakh? The dreaded lack of games and then asking him to produce his best with 10 minutes at the end of a game that we desperately need to score a goal and perhaps being farmed out wide. More than a back up striker I feel we need our current players apart from obviously Robin to fix up and look sharp on the training pitch and start finding the net. Ramsey I have already spoken about, Theo Walcott who has that in him, Gervinho, Arshavin, Arteta and so on.

If we need anything then it is either a creative wide forward who can score goals or a direct wide forward who can score goals to supplement van Persie, preferably a player that can also play as a central striker. We don’t just need a player in case Robin gets injured.

There are rumours today that Andrey Arshavin will move on in the summer and to be honest, that wouldn’t surprise me, nor would it be unexpected. That said, there is no proof that this is the case from today’s news. Next year Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ryo, Gervinho and Walcott will all be a year older, a year wiser and hopefully a year better. Andrey Arshavin’s age means that he is unlikely to improve as a player so it would make sense if he moved on. If that is the case then wouldn’t it be great if he could have three months of brilliance?

Right, time to dash.

Back tomorrow.