A position that has not driven me to want to drown myself in bleach over the past few seasons has been the guys in between the sticks. Bernd Leno-Emi Martinez-Aaron Ramsdale have all been respectable goalies and competent players at their respective positions for Arsenal teams that have finished outside of the Champions league. Our #1 coming into this season is Aaron Ramsdale and he has that position locked down as any position can be at Arsenal at the current moment. The classy and underrated Bernd Leno is getting sold to Fulham in the coming days which has opened up the backup role to American Matt Turner. As things stand, Aaron Ramsdale will get all the Premier League games barring injuries as well as the Europa League knockout games. There might be a decent chance Matt Turner gets the Europa League knockout games if he performs well but the easiest way to put it, in any high leverage game, you can bet Arteta will give Ramsdale the spot. Matt Turner will serve as a FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and Europa League group stage games which should give him some momentum going into the World Cup.
Mikel Arteta just like his former boss Pep, yearned for a ball-playing goalkeeper to start our attacks and if that is what he is looking for, he more than got that in Ramsdale. The way he is able to pass out of pressure was something I was not expecting when he came into the team. He sometimes gets us into trouble with his risky passing, but the reward outweighs the risk when he pulls it off. As a shotstopper, I believe Bernd Leno surpasses Ramsdale as Ramsdale struggled dramatically towards the tail end of the season to get his hand to anything. It felt like Aaron Ramsdale was just a passion-merchant late last season with his performances largely begging for more secure hands in goal. He yells a lot and celebrates a lot after saves, which I don’t mind, you just gotta make the saves you are supposed to save which he struggled with in April and May. Aaron needs to play with that swagger he has, he just needs to ride that line better and appropriately lead the back line.
Regardless, he is our guy going into next season and it could be way worse. Hopefully Matt Turner can provide enough push for Ramsdale to stop playing like an asshole. Aaron Ramsdale has every motivation to play well and push for that England #1 spot if Pickford struggles. The same with Turner, I expect nothing but perfection from the Arsenal keepers going into this season with the World Cup looming (it won’t happen but gives me room to complain).
Kent’s confidence on Arsenal’s GKs: 8/10 – good enough going into next season, I have much bigger things to worry about. Just need Ramsdale to not play like an asshole and spaz (Jordan Pickford vibes if you know what I mean).
Featured image credits: Getty