Aaron Ramsdale has proved himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League amid the Gunners’ push to win their first title since 2004.
Only Manchester United ’s David de Gea and Newcastle stopper Nick Pope have kept more clean sheets in the league than Ramsdale’s 12 this term - yet the 24-year-old was warned by Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta that he might have to go without first-team football for up to a year when he joined the club from Sheffield United.
Ramsdale signed for the Gunners for an initial fee of £24million in 2021, potentially rising to £30m with add-ons. Bernd Leno had been Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper the previous season and Arteta told Ramsdale that he might have to be patient to dislodge the Germany ‘keeper.
Asked if he is happy with the start to his career at the Emirates Stadium on The Peter Crouch Podcast last year, Ramsdale said: “Yeah definitely, I didn’t think when I signed that I’d be in straight away. The manager was upfront with me and said ‘it might take you a year, it might take you six months but we don’t see you as a number two, it just depends on how the team’s doing’.”
Leno started Arsenal’s first three Premier League games of the 2021/22 campaign but Arteta opted to bring in Ramsdale after a chastening 5-0 defeat to Manchester City and the England international made the spot his own.
“I think thankfully for me we were in a tough moment at the start of the season and I got thrown in and I managed to just play with some of my confidence and yeah, stayed in the team,” he added. “I think it always helps when, obviously, Bernd (Leno) is a top keeper and a professional, it’s so much easier to stay switched on than someone that sort of just tosses off.”
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Ramsdale’s transfer fee was the highest Arsenal have ever paid for a goalkeeper and it raised eyebrows given he had been a part of the Sheffield United side who were relegated from the top-flight. Arteta made a point of speaking to Ramsdale, who accepted that there were questions about the fee from some quarters.
He added: “The phone calls after the ball got rolling when the bid had been accepted were instrumental for me. As soon as I got there he (Arteta) told me to be myself, try and shake the changing room up, be confident.
“But there was definitely, I reckon, people who were just saying ‘hold on a minute’, especially as I was relegated for the second time, £24m up to whatever it was is a lot of money, especially at the time as reported as a number two. I definitely would have been getting some criticism.”
It is perhaps Ramsdale’s commanding presence that has stood out most, with his leadership skills and an unflinching self-confidence helping transform Arsenal’s defensive unit. Ramsdale was disappointed to let Jarrod Bowen’s equaliser past him in the Gunners’ 2-2 draw against West Ham last weekend but Roy Keane was quick to praise him afterwards.
“If you’re a goalkeeper at a big club, I think he’s a big personality which is just as important,” former United midfielder Keane told Sky Sports. “Obviously, he has made mistakes, which you do as a goalkeeper, but it’s the way he’s responded to it.
“He does look like a really good character and a popular figure in the dressing room. The importance of goalscorers is vital, but you’re not going to win anything unless you have a really, really good goalkeeper.
“We talk about the character of goalkeepers, you can talk about technical ability, etc, [but] it’s how they react to disappointment. As I say, what’s come across particularly, and not just last week, he looks like a really big important personality in that dressing room. That’s vital.”
While Arteta warned Ramsdale he might have to bide his time to become Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper, the former Bournemouth man rose to the challenge almost immediately and continues to earn plaudits for his impact at the Gunners.
