Gunner identifies key to next year’s success

Ramsey hopes for strong start to upcoming campaign

By Zain Alvi | 4th July 2012

Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey has warned his teammates against another slow start next season and believes that performing well in the early stages of the season will be the key to ending a seven-year trophy drought.

The Gunners suffered from an incredibly poor start to last season and the turbulence carried on all the way till February, when they still appeared away from their goal of securing Champions League qualification.

However, a furious rally in the last three months of the season saw them finish third with the best record in London and an automatic berth in Europe’s most elite club competition next season.

Ramsey was proud of his teammates’ late season heroics but hopes that they can actually be guided towards pursuit of silverware in the 2012-13 campaign.

“Absolutely, I’m convinced we can do well in the new season. The important thing is to get off to a better start than we did last year. If we do that and get ourselves into the mix, we can compete for trophies,” Ramsey explained in an interview at Arsenal.com.

The 21-year old added: “We had a fantastic run from February onwards to get into that top three – even though a lot of people doubted us.

“We showed character to do that, we showed how determined we are to do well. This time we want to get off to a strong start and if we do we can have an exciting season.”

Unlike last season, where they lost stars Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri in a disruptive first month, the Gunners have already built strong for this coming season with the high profile signings of Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud.