Aaron Ramsey 2.0: Arsenal could hit gold with "exceptional" £130k-p/w star

The January transfer window came and went without Arsenal adding any players to bolster their options at the top end of the pitch ahead of the second half of the season.

Mikel Arteta confirmed that the club were “actively looking” at potential recruits in the winter market, but the deadline passed at the start of February and the Gunners did not have any new players to compete in the forward department.

At the time of the January window, Arsenal already knew that they would be without Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka for months with knee and hamstring injuries respectively.

As you can see in the table above, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli have since suffered hamstring injuries that have left them unavailable for action, with the former out for the remainder of the 2024/25 campaign.

This means that Arsenal are without four of their frontline attacking options for a large chunk of the second half of the season whilst they compete to win the Premier League and the Champions League.

Why losing Kai Havertz is a big blow

Havertz has been a Marmite figure throughout his Premier League career, with Chelsea and Arsenal, as he can be frustrating in some moments and brilliant in others.

The Germany international scored the winner in a Champions League final for the Blues, netting against Manchester City, but he also only managed a return of 32 goals in 139 appearances in all competitions in total.

Havertz has been similarly inconsistent in front of goal with the Gunners, as he has scored nine goals but missed a whopping 15 ‘big chances’ in the Premier League this season.

The left-footed attacker does, however, offer a constant threat at the top end of the pitch with his physical presence and his movement in-and-around the box.

As you can see in the table above, Havertz ranks incredibly highly among his positional peers in the top leagues across Europe in a host of key attacking statistics.

Whilst it is understandable for supporters to be frustrated with his wasteful finishing, as illustrated by his 15 ‘big chances’ missed this season in the league, the German dynamo’s injury is a big blow because Arteta could rely upon him to chip in with goals and assists fairly regularly.

Without Havertz or Jesus available, Arteta needs players in other positions to step up and provide the goals. He needs to unearth his own version of Aaron Ramsey, who was adept at scoring from midfield for the Gunners.

Aaron Ramsey’s goalscoring quality for Arsenal

The Wales international, who moved on from The Emirates to sign for Juventus in the summer of 2019, was once a reliable goalscoring midfielder for the London giants.

Ramsey scored 64 goals and provided 60 assists in 369 appearances in all competitions for the Gunners during his time at the club, but he was particularly prolific between the 2013/14 and 2014/15 campaigns.

The Welsh star scored 26 goals and racked up 17 assists in those two seasons combined, which shows that he offered a regular threat as both a scorer and a creator of goals from a midfield position for Arsene Wenger in those two years.

As you can see in the clips above, Ramsey scored a great variety of goals in the Premier League for the Gunners, thanks to his technical ability and the timing in his movements.

The former Arsenal star was able to get himself into great positions to score by timing his runs into the box to be in the right place at the right time, and had the quality in front of goal to make the most of those situations when he got there.

Arsenal may have Aaron Ramsey 2.0

Arteta could hit the jackpot for the Gunners by unearthing the club’s new version of Ramsey in Spanish central midfielder Mikel Merino, who showcased his knack for goalscoring off the bench against Leicester.

The former Newcastle United star, who joined from Real Sociedad last summer, came on as a substitute for the striker-less Arsenal side against the Foxes and won the match with the only two goals of the game.

As you can see in the highlights above, Merino positioned himself like an experienced striker to head in Ethan Nwaneri’s cross and to convert from close range from Leandro Trossard’s ball in.

The £130k-per-week star, who Jurrien Timber claimed has “exceptional” qualities, has never been a prolific scorer in his career, with no more than five league goals in any season for any of his previous clubs.

However, Merino did score five goals from an xG tally of 3.30 in LaLiga for Real Sociedad and he has found the back of the net four times from 2.90 xG for Arsenal in the Premier League this term.

As you can see in the table above, the Spain international ranks incredibly highly among midfielders in the Premier League in a host of key goalscoring metrics.

He has only played 800 minutes, with eight starts in 17 matches, in the division, though, and this means that there is only a small sample size at the moment, but it does show that the potential is there for him to offer a huge threat as a goalscorer from midfield.

There is enough there and in his performance against Leicester, though, to suggest that Arteta could hit the jackpot with Merino by unleashing him as a regular starter in midfield and giving him the freedom to push forward into the box to pick up goalscoring positions.

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The Spaniard has the attributes to develop into a Ramsey-esque figure for the Arsenal manager and he could be the man to step up and fill the void left by Havertz and Jesus in the second half of the season.