By Ricky Butler at Westfalenstadion
Having been beaten by Jurgen Klopp's side at the Emirates two weeks ago, the Gunners knew they needed a result at the Westfalenstadion to keep alive their hopes of reaching the last 16.
And cometh the hour, cometh the man as it was once again Ramsey who was in the right place at the right time to keep Arsenal on top of Group F.
To put this result into context, Dortmund had won all eight of their previous home matches in what has been their best ever start to a Bundesliga season. They certainly looked impressive in the victory in London a fortnight earlier but Wenger's men, it seemed, had learnt their lesson.
And it did not go unnoticed by Dortmund chief Klopp, who acknowledged the quality of Arsenal's performance. He said: "Yes, they could win it - as long as they don't play Bayern Munich. They are young, healthy and good technicians. They won a clever game."
The North-Londoners had set out to contain the Germans from the start. In fact so concerned were they with they with their defensive duties, Arsenal failed to muster a single shot on goal during the first half.
They rode their luck at times, too. Defender Neven Subotic fired an early chance wide from close range while Henrikh Mkhitaryan, scorer at the Emirates, ought to have repeated the trick when presented with an even better chance midway through the first half. But with only Wojciech Szczesny to beat, he missed the target from 18 yards.
The Dortmund pressure intensified at the start of the second period. The Arsenal goalkeeper dived full-length to keep out a Marco Rues header, while the same man then saw a close range effort ruled out for offside.
Arsenal started to believe it might just be their night when the Germans had a second goal ruled out by the assistant's flag soon after - this one from Marcel Schmelzer - and so it proved.
There were 61 minutes on the clock when Tomas Rosicky worked hard to push the ball out to Mesut Ozil on the right. The Gunners record signing, born just down the road in Gelsenkirchen, stood up a cross to the far post which Olivier Giroud nodded into the path of the late arriving Ramsey.
The Welshman, with 10 goals already this season, was not about to pass up such an opportunity and his diving header nestled into the bottom corner of the net to send the 3,300 travelling Gooners behind the goal into ecstasy.
Suddenly the shackles were off and Ramsey was denied a second by a sprawling save from Roman Weidenfeller before Per Metersacker, immaculate at the back once again, headed onto the roof of the net.
The inevitable late Dortmund surge failed to bring any reward, although they felt they should have had a penalty at the death when Robert Lewandowski threw himself theatrically to ground under challenge from Mertersacker as he attempted an acrobatic finish. But Arsenal deserved their slice of luck.
Wenger, understandably, was delighted. He said: "We had a united, focused performance, especially defensively.
"It was a question of being focused and intelligent, and to wait for the moment to create openings in their defence.
"We had a difficult period at start of second half, but after we scored I felt we could have scored a second goal and we were less under pressure," he added.
"Overall it's a huge win here. If you look at the results they have made at home in the Champions League, not many teams have achieved that.
"Dortmund are especially dangerous when you lose the ball, and to counter that, you need maturity. If you have a very young team tonight you would be overrun and lose that game by a very high score. We look more stable defensively."
"I have a lot of respect for Dortmund because they are a very good side. Unfortunately this group is a very strong group, and one of the big teams will have to pay a heavy price. I hope it will not be us."
Despite now having to win their last two matches to qualify, Klopp remained upbeat. He said: “It is a very strong group and the positive news is that two wins and we will qualify.
"We created much more today up front but they scored with their first chance of the match and we could not come back. This defeat could have been avoided. It's definitely going to get exciting from now on.”
Arsenal could book their place in the last 16 with victory over Marseille at the Emirates in three weeks time. Meanwhile, Dortmund host Napoli, who beat the French side 3-2 last night to join Arsenal on nine points, knowing they cannot afford any more slip-ups.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND - Weidenfeller, Großkreutz, Schmelzer, Bender (Hofmann - 75' ), Subotic, Papastathopoulos, Blaszczykowski (Aubameyang - 74' ), Sahin, Lewandowski, Mkhitaryan, Reus (Schieber - 86' ).
ARSENAL - Szczesny, Sagna, Gibbs, Arteta, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Rosicky (Vermaelen - 91' ), Ramsey, Giroud (Bendtner - 90' ), Özil, Cazorla (Monreal - 75' ).
REFEREE - B Kuipers (Neth).
ATTENDANCE: 65,829.
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