Aaron Ramsey takes centre stage as Arsenal come through nervy Sunderland match

The Gunners won 3-1 to move above Manchester City in the Premier League

Aaron Ramsey (GETTY IMAGES)

With Santi Cazorla out until March at the earliest, Aaron Ramsey’s return to goalscoring form in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Sunderland was very welcome for Arsène Wenger. Cazorla underwent surgery on Friday after rupturing knee ligaments and will be out for “at least three months, maybe four”.

That is regarded as a conservative estimate, though Cazorla’s eagerness to return is clear from the speed with which he went under the knife. Wenger explained: “The guy said, ‘look it’s a clear case, it’s a rupture of the external knee ligament.’ Santi said, ‘OK, let’s do it straight away.’ Santi didn’t want to wait for 25 opinions.”

In Cazorla’s absence, Ramsey returned to a more central role and while he showed signs of rust in his second start after more than a month out, his nose for goal remains keen. The Welshman continually found himself in dangerous positions and, after several misses, was finally rewarded with a close-range poacher’s goal in injury time.

“Aaron creates a high number of chances when he plays through the middle,” said Wenger. “He could have scored three today. That is why he was so happy [to score].”

The risk with playing Ramsey centrally in Arsenal’s 4-2-3-1 system is his adventurousness. Getting the balance right between protecting the back four and looking for goals is, said Wenger, “the most difficult” aspect of playing him there.

The manager added: “He needs to play more with a player who sits because he likes to get into the box. That’s why, at the moment, I play [Mathieu] Flamini.”

Goals, of course, are what are needed for Arsenal on Wednesday when they play Olympiakos in their final Champions League group game. Arsenal need to win by two goals to qualify and, admitted Wenger, it was “psychologically important” to beat Sunderland.

“For our confidence it was vital. I was very nervous because I knew that for the team it was a very important game, for our season as well. We had players missing… if we don’t win, people think ‘yes, they miss too many players’. That’s why I knew it was a very important moment for the team.”

It was not, in truth, a commanding performance with Sunderland creating more and better chances from much less possession. “Maybe they were a little bit jittery because they had not won in three [league games], and we had the opportunity to punish them, but we didn’t and as always at this level of football you pay the price,” said Sam Allardyce.

The Sunderland manager bemoaned his team’s finishing, and, in a reminder that Arsenal are not the only team with injury worries, the absence of Jermain Defoe.

“Finishing is instinctive, not psychological,” he said. “You can’t coach finishers. All those coaches who say they coach finishers are lying. Finishers are finishers. Our natural finisher is Defoe. If he had been on the field he would have got two or three.”

Midfielder Ola Toivonen was recalled to the side in a deeper role and the Sweden international now knows the players must put in the same kind of shift at home to Watford on Saturday. “It is a big game next week,” he said.