Arsenal have learned how to play against big teams – Ramsey

Aaron Ramsey believes Sunday’s Community Shield victory over Chelsea provided further evidence of Arsenal’s continued progress in recent times.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored the only goal of the game at Wembley as Arsene Wenger finally registered a win against Jose Mourinho at the 14th attempt.

Much of the post-match talk centred on the two managers’ contrasting views on Arsenal’s approach to the game – with Wenger flatly rejecting Mourinho’s assertion that the Emirates Stadium club had abandoned their philosophy by sitting deep in a bid to hold on to their lead.

Ramsey was simply pleased to see his team hold firm.

“We definitely had to sit in at times today, but I think we’ve learned over the years how to sort of play against the bigger teams now,” said the Wales midfielder. 

“Sometimes you have to do that and invite them on and get them on the counter-attack, which we’ve done.

“They [Chelsea] have done ever so well against us in the past, so we used different techniques to get the result.

“You can definitely sense that something has sort of clicked into place and everybody knows what they’re doing. [We are] going in the right direction and we feel confident that we can go and win games.”

Wembley has become a happy hunting ground for Arsenal, with their retention of the Community Shield following back-to-back FA Cup triumphs at the national stadium.

“It was important for us to carry on the good form that we’re in at the moment and we managed to do that,” Ramsey said.

“This is quite a successful place for us now in recent times, so hopefully we can keep this habit that we’ve got at the moment.”

Arsenal’s victory also saw goalkeeper Petr Cech come out on top against his former club, with Ramsey adding: “He’s obviously a top-class goalkeeper with a lot of experience and that’s what he’s brought.

“He made a couple of good saves today and over the course of the season hopefully he can save us a few points.”