Arsenal’s midfield trident: The Emergence of a brilliant Partnership?

Article by e-Arsenal Correspondent Kingsley Okiwelu

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One interesting feature of Arsenal’s 3-0 drubbing of Newcastle on Monday night was the indication we got that the Özil-Cazorla-Ramsey trident is finally coming together. The prospects of Özil and Cazorla dovetailing beautifully was held up as a tantalizing prospect from the moment Özil signed for the club, but for some reason it remained just that for majority of the season, a tantalising prospect.

During the Newcastle game, however, we began to see more evidence that this partnership is beginning to flourish, facilitated as it is by the emergence of Aaron Ramsey as a standout player for Arsenal this term.

It’s slightly difficult to put a precise finger on what it is about Aaron Ramsey that has such a transformative effect on all the other players around him. This is because unlike, say an Andrea Pirlo, a Cesc Fabregas or a Xavi, who can elevate the performances of the players around them with their vision, an ability to spray defence splitting passes or dictate the tempo of play in midfield; or a Stephen Gerrard(in his prime at least) who could drive a team forward with direct running and galvanise his teammates through leading by example, Ramsey does not particularly stand out technically. Nor does he seem to influence those around him through sheer force of personality (as say, Roy Keane). Of course, he’s not a slouch in the technique department either. He does everything fairly well, be it passing, shooting or just generally hugging possession, but he does not exactly offer anything extraordinary where these attributes are concerned. What he does offer however, is boundless energy and enthusiasm and the ability to make telling runs that bear huge significance for his team, both in an offensive sense, as he showed with his bursting run forward before finding Mesut Özil with a cute reverse pass for the German to set Giroud up for Arsenal’s third against Newcastle, and in a defensive one, as was brought into focus by his 50 yard sprint to dispossess Gouffran at the edge of the Arsenal area, after his(Ramsey’s) blocked shot had led to a Newcastle counter attack.

Those two instances in the Newcastle game seemed to represent in microcosm, the exact qualities, Aaron Ramsey brings to the Arsenal team. As Arsene Wenger noted in his programme notes prior to the Newcastle game; “Aaron gives us great power. Not in the sense of his physicality necessarily but the power in his runs, box to box. Power can be how quickly you get to one box with the ball and how quickly you get back to the other without it. He can produce that. And with the inclusion of Mesut’s proven quality to our play, it makes us a more powerful force “.

The end result of this “Oil in the Arsenal Engine”, to borrow the phrase used by Wenger to describe Ramsey’s impact on the Arsenal squad is that the hitherto listless looking pair of Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla have all of a sudden found a new lease of life. The past two games starting from the performance against Hull City have transformed Arsenal from a team nervously hanging on, and then utilising its greater efficiency in front of goal to see off West Ham at the Emirates, to one playing with more freedom and confidence, as witnessed against Hull and Newcastle. The reasons for this evolution and for Cazorla and Özil’s resurgence are not difficult to decipher. In the absence of Ramsey, the team was denied any “runners”, and in a team with numerous creative players who are all naturally inclined to gravitate towards the ball instead of make runs off it, the gunners game became one paced and predictable especially when they were unable to quickly impose their quick passing game on their opponents. Ozil, in particular, cut an increasingly frustrated figure as he seemed to be worn down not only with the physical intensity of the premier league but also by the fact that there seemed to no teammates capable of making darting runs off the ball to take advantage of his perceptive passes and intelligent movement. The German is more a provider and a creator than someone who dominates play in midfield or scores lots of goals, so this absence of players who could take advantage of his brilliant efficiency in the final third was always going to take something away from his game. The rest occasioned by his six-week lay off due to injury seems to have revived him physically however, and with Ramsey doing the hard running and grafting in midfield, the platform for Arsenal’s more technically gifted artists to express themselves appears once more to have come to the fore. Added to this is the fact that Özil and Ramsey seem to have continued to develop the excellent understanding that was a feature of some of Arsenal’s scintillating form, earlier on in the season.

What makes it a particularly mouthwatering prospect for Arsenal is that given the stop-start nature of Arsenal’s season(particularly owing to a horrendous spate of injuries), the Ramsey-Ozil-Cazorla triumvirate has not had a lot of time forging a devastating partnership, yet we seem to be witnessing the first green shoots of what promises to be a brilliant source for the creation and taking of goal-scoring opportunities if this partnership continues to flourish. The last few games of the season should provide a better picture of where this budding partnership currently is in terms of enhancing their understanding of each other and provide more pointers to what could turn out to be one of the most effective midfield units in Europe, next season and beyond.

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