Nobody seeks entertainment from a Stoke vs Arsenal matchup, they are generally frustrating affairs that leave you with a feeling of emptiness and disappointment. A nil nil result just added to our recent mediocrity.
While it's hard to continue to refer to Stoke players as 'Orcs' with all their recent quality acquisitions, they do still play in Stoke which is seemingly full of morons. It was just a few years ago that fans thought it amusing to mark Aaron Ramsey's return to the Britannia after a near career-ending leg break by one of their own, by bringing sticks to their seats and snapping them in unison when Ramsey was on the ball. Now, 6 years after the infamous tackle by Shawcross, Ramsey is still booed by the Stoke fans, for whatever reason, and their recent creativity in their chants has to be brought to attention.
"Aaron Ramsey, he walks with a limp" is one of the most disgusting chants I've heard uttered from the lips of so called 'fans', and shows not only the level of class you find in the city of Stoke, but how inbreeding is still so prevalent in the North of England. Wenger was quite right to bring it up after the match and Stoke, as a club should really renounce that sort of behaviour, if not the Football Association itself.
When it came to the man himself, the Welshman received relentless support from the Gooners in the away section throughout the 90 minutes, but on social media he's getting quite a bashing for his performances of late. To me, he's been that rugged, passionate British lad that powers through the midfield and gives his all every match. Unfortunately he's slowly wandered from that role and, once again seems to be trying too hard to be something he's not.
A friend of mine suggested that him being surrounded by the likes of Cazorla, Sanchez, Wilshere etc, has rubbed off on him a bit. Which sounds perfectly well and good, but his point was that Ramsey's play recently has looked as if he's trying to implement that style of play into his own game, and it's just not Aaron Ramsey. Instead of being that cog in the middle of the field that wins tackles and distributes play quickly and efficiently, he's beginning to hold onto the ball too long and attempting to win the game by himself.
Perhaps, because the Welsh Jesus has been at this club for so long, we forget that he is just 25 years old. Sure, you could argue that he should be hitting his peak right now, and maybe he has already, but I personally think he's got more to offer. The recent rumours of Ramsey heading to Barcelona seem to be picking up steam the closer we get to the summer, and while £50million sounds fantastic, I'd like to see him stay at Arsenal and fight for his place once his teammates return from injuries.
The kid's been through a hell of a lot, the least we can do as Arsenal fans is show him the support his efforts deserve. Lazy is one thing he is not, and let's not forget;
There's only one Aaron Ramsey!
