Arsenal look like they’ve found their new Ramsey

A week ago, Arsenal romped to a 3-0 victory over Fulham. The win was never in doubt as Mikel Arteta’s side played some of their finest football all season.

This weekend, it was anything but pretty for the Gunners. In fact, it was actually rather controversial.

Against West Ham, it took a solitary goal from Leandro Trossard, but it wasn’t without a lot of huffing and puffing. Truth be told, Arsenal struggled to create much. It was a performance perhaps more indicative of the displays we saw post Carabao Cup final.

Yet, as all good sides do, they found a way to get over the line, even if they did get a little help from VAR in the dying embers of the match.

How Arsenal came through nervy West Ham clash

Arsenal have started their last three Premier League matches in brilliant fashion. Against Newcastle, Eberechi Eze gave them the lead in the opening ten minutes and against Fulham, it was Viktor Gyokeres who opened the scoring early on.

Versus West Ham, Arteta’s side could have been up in the early exchanges. They dominated the ball and had nine shots before the hosts had their first.

However, the match changed after the substitution of the injured Ben White. After a challenge with Crysencio Summerville, the right-back injured his knee, leading to the full-back coming off.

Arteta took the decision to place Declan Rice at right-back. He could have favoured Cristian Mosquera but Martin Zubimendi came on instead to partner Myles Lewis-Skelly in the middle of the park.

Yet, in that moment, the visitors lost control of the game. The midfield were bypassed and the right flank did not look equipped to deal with the waves of West Ham attacks that came down that side, largely from El Hadji Malick Diouf.

Arsenal rallied, however, and Arteta was able to correct his mistake in the second period. Rice shifted back into midfield, Mosquera came on at right-back and things looked better.

Despite that, the league leaders still found life difficult. The game changed this way and that in three big moments. David Raya came to the rescue to make a remarkable save to deny Mateus Fernandes. The midfielder was one-on-one with the goal at his mercy, only for the Arsenal goalkeeper to stand his ground and make a top save. It was a moment that may well have just won his side the title.

Trossard was the eventual hero, scoring the winning goal. Martin Odegaard, who enjoyed his finest cameo of the season, kept his composure inside the area and then fed the Belgian who found the net via a deflection.

But, there was still one more big moment. In the final few moments, Callum Wilson looked to have rescued a point for the relegation-threatened Irons, but it was ruled out for a foul on Raya. Pablo had his arm across the Spaniard and after a lengthy VAR review, the goal was not given.

The Arsenal goalkeeper was at the centre of two of the biggest moments of the game, but the largest amount of praise must be given to Trossard.

Arsenal’s modern-day Aaron Ramsey saves the day

While this was a rough old battle for the Gunners, it’s safe to say they had rediscovered their mojo in the final third over the last week.

A large part of that has been courtesy of Trossard. While Gyokeres and Bukayo Saka have been in the goals, they have been helped brilliantly by their elder counterpart on the left flank.

It had been a pretty disastrous start to 2026 for the winger. Before today’s game, he had not scored in 25 straight games. He was without a goal in the entirety of this calendar year.

However, in the last two league games, Trossard has been excellent. Last week, the 31-year-old assisted Gyokeres’ second goal and completed a career high six dribbles in one game.

This time, he was the true hero, putting to rest a terrible run of form. It was a classic Trossard moment. He has been Mr Clutch ever since arriving at the Emirates Stadium. Just call him the modern-day Aaron Ramsey, if you will.

Before the Arteta reign, Ramsey was the clutch player of the latter Wenger years. He always seemed to pop up in the north London derby with a special performance and scored two FA Cup final goals to seal trophies for Arsenal.

Fast forward several years and the man of the moment seems to be Trossard. It is not the first time the attacker has popped up with an important goal after his £27m move from Brighton.

During the 2023/24 season when he scored 17 goals in all competitions, the wide forward usually always came up trumps. He netted a late equaliser to rescue a point against Chelsea, struck home against Liverpool, scored again against Chelsea and found the net versus Manchester United.

In Europe, he scored an important goal against Porto, as well as scoring against Bayern Munich to salvage a draw with just 14 minutes left in the quarter-final first leg.

While those moments have been rather more infrequent in 2025/26, he has issued a timely reminder in the last two league games as to why he has been such an important part of Arteta’s squad.

The hope now for Trossard is that, like Ramsey, he can end his time at the Emirates with some silverware. If they go on to lift the Premier League title in two weeks time, they may well have that goal to thank.