Arsenal supporters have been pretty quiet in recent times despite seeing their side extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to 16 matches on Sunday.
Unai Emery’s men went into their encounter with newly-promoted Wolves having won seven and drawn the other three of their previous ten league games, alongside four wins in the Europa League as well as two to reach the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup. But they just about extend their excellent unbeaten run at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday despite falling behind to Ivan Cavaliero’s strike after 13 minutes, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan netting just four minutes from time to secure a 1-1 draw for the North London giants.
Thus, there have been many satisfied but ultimately unenthused Arsenal fans up and down the country in recent times, several of whom are likely to be intrigued by recent comments from Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas, who has hinted at Aaron Ramsey’s big influence when playing for his country with a bold statement about Ryan Giggs’ Wales team.
Nicholas, who spent five years at Arsenal between 1983 and 1988, states that, even amid uncertainty surrounding Gareth Bale’s fitness, the Welsh are ‘still a pretty strong side at home with the likes of Aaron Ramsey leading them’, a bold statement which the ex-Gunners star rightly backs up by emphasising Ramsey’s influence on the team.
Ultimately, it doesn’t appear as though Ramsey has a future at Arsenal under new manager Emery, what with his contract up at the end of the season and no agreement set to be reached regarding an extension – links recently to Bayern Munich suggest that the want-away star may be on his way out of the club very soon indeed.
And with just six Premier League starts to his name so far this term, none of which have come in his last five appearances in the league, it’s clear that Emery is already looking to life after the Welsh star, and as such is slowly phasing him out of the reckoning.
However, as Nicholas underlines, Ramsey will be vital to Wales against Denmark on Friday night, with the pundit explicitly alluding to the Arsenal man when discussing Giggs’ side without the influence of talisman Bale.
Obviously, it goes without saying that Wales are much stronger when Real Madrid star Bale is in the side, what with the forward having scored 30 goals in just 72 caps for his country, four goals of which have come in his four appearances for the team in 2018.
And when one has a world-class player like that in one’s ranks, they are always likely to suffer when he’s not available or fully fit – but Nicholas doesn’t seem too fazed by such problem given the quality of Ramsey.
That itself is interesting, given the 27-year-old hasn’t featured too greatly for Arsenal recently and as such it’s unclear exactly what form he is currently in, but it also underlines just how highly Nicholas thinks of the midfielder in a Wales shirt – even in Bale’s possible absence, he still thinks they’ll have enough to beat Denmark.
As such, Nicholas’ statement that Wales remain ‘still a pretty strong side at home’ even amid Bale fitness concerns is intriguing, but he’s right to allude to Ramsey as a reason for his thinking – the Arsenal man, regardless of where he currently stands among Gunners fans given his contract situation and seeming happiness to leave, remains a quality player and one Giggs will be looking to against the Danes on Friday.
Arsenal fans… what do you think? Let us know!
