Don Pacifico Don't think there are much positives from the fans, journos maybe but they are just riding on the bandwagon of his ex glories. He made the most mistakes that directly led to us dropping points from the very first season already and went downhill from then on. Those days our GK situation was really poverty. When we finally signed Leno he was like a breath of fresh air.

Ospina was no better but I can maybe forgive him for the crucial role he had to us winning the FA Cup. I have 0 fond memories of Cech and he probably don't care about us at all too

      Well to be fair to Cech, look at the defense he had in front of him. We were not exactly setting the world on fire with our defensive prowess back then. That said, he did let in his fair share of clangers

      Clrnc I mean I thought he was good in his first season and I know I wasn't alone at the time.

      In terms of errors, I'm gonna invoke the 'show me the stats' clause because in 2015/2016, Boruc made the most errors leading to a goal (5) versus Cech on 2. And it's not like he wasn't tested because he made the 3rd highest number of saves out of any GK that season (pretty unusual for a team that finished 2nd as per the point @USArsenal made about our defensive quality); as I said before, he also achieved the most clean sheets of anyone too.

      So yeah, currently the data I've seen supports my memory of that season.

        RocktheCasbah this kid had seriously bad timing with his injuries. without injury setbacks, i imagine he is able to develop with the others and be part of the core 16 or so. but as we can see with even a top player like Jesus, big injuries can turn you to dust.

          Yeah, I know. Gonna suck when he scores the winning goal at the Cottage.

          6 days later

          Very very good interview with Ramsey. Everyone should watch it.

          Some interesting bits

          • Arsene Wenger obviously is his best manager, and he said a lot of players reached their best level under him as he was an incredible man manager. E.g. Ozil
          • He picked no Arsenal players in defence amongst all the best players he played with. All back 5 from Juve. Danilo over Sagna/Bellerin, Alex Sandro over Monreal.
          • Picked Giroud as the best CF he played with (not RVP) due to the special connection and understand they had. Both FA cup winners was setup by Giroud too
          • Full of admiration for Cazorla, like everyone who played with him.
          • He was not the same player after the injury. Struggled a lot with many different injuries because of that one leg break. Similar to Diaby
          • He didn't want to leave us. He wanted to retire here. But all of a sudden we rescinded the contract when Emery came. Then went to sign with Juve for 400k per week to try and win the UCL.
          • Went to United training ground, got invited by Rafa to speak to, visited Moyes home but chose to sign for us because of Wenger's pull. Wenger flew him to europe to speak with him.
          • Wants to be a manager soon. Dreams of managing Wales.

            Clrnc Picked Giroud as the best CF he played with (not RVP) due to the special connection and understand they had. Both FA cup winners was setup by Giroud too

            Not surprised he doesn't like RvP lol. Supposedly they did not like each other at all.

            Clrnc He didn't want to leave us. He wanted to retire here. But all of a sudden we rescinded the contract when Emery came. Then went to sign with Juve for 400k per week to try and win the UCL.

            Complete load of bollocks, as soon as big money offers came from abroad his head was turned. Shouldn't try to take us for fools.

                  He was a mixed bag for me. Looking back at highlight reels over that decade, he was at the heart of a lot of it. Two final winners is legendary stuff. Lacked the consistency and quality of Fabregas which was always the mark for me, but was still a very good player.

                  He lacked the tactical nous needed. If he came through the Spanish production line, he'd be amongst the best in the world. Still one of the best we've had in the Emirates era and would actually do a great job in that second number 8 role we have.

                    Mirth Yeah he was extremely inconsistent. The injuries surely didn't help but watching back the matches his first touch was sometimes horrendously bad and he skied alot of easy chances.

                    But if you look back at his game before the injury and he is very different, Was so silky and technically superb.

                      Dan Smith, Martin Taylor, Ryan Shawcross - 3 absolute journeymen whose careers were a net negative to football.

                      Loved him as a player as he was worth paying to watch. Scored some unbelievable goals, but I will also call out his passing (when going forward) was under rated.

                      Mirth Still one of the best we've had in the Emirates era and would actually do a great job in that second number 8 role we have.

                      He would. In his prime he'd have put both Xhaka and Rice to shame going forward, not even thinking about the highlights reel but just his general awareness and craft. Also had a superb engine and work rate, but probably lacked Rice's reading of the play a little bit.

                        Ramsey was a great player who had two problems. First, injury just stopped him being consistent. Think about a guy like Salah who’s always healthy and the levels he reaches. You just need that in your career. Second, we never played to his strengths. We constantly tried to turn him into an on the ball CM when he was something else. He’d own it as our L8

                        Yep, he was great off the ball, as evinced by quite a few of those "third man running" goals.

                        Quality player who went to waste in an Arsenal Dark Ages.

                        Ramsey dropped off slightly after his famous "purple patch". After the next summer he hired an image rights consultant and peroxided his hair, and following that he wasn't quite the same.

                        I don't know if I blame him for having his head turned by big offers from Europe (who wouldn't, especially at a club which demonstrably lacked the necessary ambition?). His one and only league title is a scudetto after all.

                        In retrospect I'm amazed we had a single player worth a damn after the 16–17 season when Leicester won. Our side from the past two seasons would easily have won that title twice.