How crucial is Ramsey for Arsenal? Well, raw numbers help paint part of the picture: prior to Ramsey’s injury on Boxing Day, Arsenal won 68 percent of their games last season. That number fell to 55 percent in his absence. When Ramsey finally returned in April, Arsenal won all five of his starts, including the FA Cup final, in which he scored the excellent extra-time winner. Small samples and all, those numbers are admittedly subject to a litany of non-Ramsey factors, but closer analysis shows just how and why Ramsey is so essential to the Arsenal cause.

Most noticeably, Ramsey “gambles” in the box like no other Arsenal player. The Gunners are often content to pass the ball around the final third without much of a cutting edge; even now-injured primary striker Olivier Giroud prefers to bring his teammates into play with his back to goal rather than make runs in behind the defense. Ramsey, on the other hand—though plenty adept at playing the Arsenal Way—uses his prolific fitness to burst into the box at every opportunity, as he did last week at Everton to score a goal generally reserved for center forwards.

Come for the slick goal from Ramsey, stay for the YouTube user’s brilliant commentary.

The fact that this goal came in the 83rd minute makes it even more vintage Ramsey, as most other center mids would be too tired to make this type of run, especially at two goals down and with the game seemingly lost.

All in all, his willingness to get into advanced positions (and stay there even if he doesn’t immediately receive the ball) gives Arsenal a much-needed scorer of the type of scrappy goals that often prove decisive in big games. On the road last season in something of a must-win Champions League game at reigning finalists Borussia Dortmund, Ramsey’s persistence in the box led to a famous winner.

Ramsey, though, is even more valuable to Arsenal for his ability to turn defense into attack.

Some players—Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla for Arsenal—can spring counterattacks by dribbling away from pressure and playing a smart pass to an advancing runner. Others—think Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez—thrive on the receiving end of those passes. But very few players are capable of consistently starting and then finishing counters all by themselves.

Enter Ramsey, whose unique combination of pace, stamina, dribbling skills, vision, and finishing makes him a genuinely absurd counterattacking proposition. Among many prime examples from a season ago, Ramsey’s finest counterattacking moment came at his boyhood club of Cardiff. Before you watch, keep in mind that this came in the 90th minute, when mortal players are far too tired to sprint 10 yards, let alone 70.

This was a familiar enough pattern when Ramsey was fit a season ago. Again and again, Ramsey was the one receiving the ball from a defender (or winning it himself) before racing down the entire pitch to score, assist, or facilitate a goal with a key pass.

On the defensive side, Ramsey’s presence gives Arsenal a stability they sorely lack when he’s off the pitch, as his tackling prowess and boundless running help him thwart opposing counters. Further, his aforementioned ability to drive out from the defensive third into the attack is essential in relieving pressure and allowing Arsenal’s defenders to rest.

With Ramsey in the team, Arsenal picked up shutout wins at home to Liverpool and Napoli, as well as the road shutout at Dortmund. Without him, Arsenal’s most impressive clean sheet was probably home to Manchester United or away at Tottenham, neither a particularly impressive achievement last season. And only with Ramsey out in the second half of the season did the Gunners fall apart at the hands of Chelsea, Liverpool, and Everton. Overall, in Ramsey’s 1,849 Premier League minutes, Arsenal conceded just 17 goals. In the 1,748 minutes he was off the field, the Gunners conceded 24 times.

All told, Ramsey is the key man for Arsenal if they plan on winning any major silverware this season, as his ability on both sides of the ball is unmatched in England. Injuries kept him out of far too many of Arsenal’s big games a season ago, but he’ll get the chance a week from Saturday against Manchester City to remind the world just how good he is.

All statistics courtesy of Opta.