David Raya was preferred to Aaron Ramsdale in Sunday’s win over Everton (Pictures: Getty)
Ian Wright has backed Mikel Arteta’s goalkeeper rotation policy following David Raya’s solid debut against Everton but expects Aaron Ramsdale to come back in for Arsenal’s next two games.
The Gunners ended their long wait for a win at Goodison Park with a 1-0 victory on Sunday, with substitute Leandro Trossard netting with a superb finish following a short corner routine.
Raya was brought into the team for the first time and had relatively little to do against an uninspiring Toffees attack, though looked calm and composed – particularly with the ball at his feet.
Despite that, Wright expects Ramsdale to be brought back in for Wednesday’s Champions League clash against PSV as well as the north London derby next week and feels the two players can be interchanged without disrupting the back-line.
Speaking on Premier League Productions, Wright explained: ‘Well it looks to me like Ramsdale will probably play on Wednesday against PSV.
‘What Mikel is going to have to deal with now is every week, every other week now, people are going to be thinking, “Well is it going to be Ramsdale or is it going to be Raya?”
‘The main thing is that they are not different in the way they are doing it, so it’s not making the defenders have to think differently. That’s the main thing.
‘But it’s going to be a question that Mikel is probably going to have all the time now, who is he going to play?
Raya did not put a foot wrong against Everton on Sunday (Picture: Getty)
‘On Wednesday I think it will be Ramsdale and I think that Ramsdale will probably play the week after too [against Spurs].’
He added: ‘We’ll see this season how it works. Two top goalkeepers in the same team going for all the prizes and see how he balances it out, it’s going to be interesting.’
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Fellow pundit Alan Shearer is less convinced by the approach, chiming in: ‘I think all we’ve known in our careers – unless you can tell me something different – I can’t think of many times where a football club has rotated their goalkeepers week in, week out.
‘I know it might be different in the Carabao Cup or the FA Cup, but in terms of the two most important competitions – the Champions League and the Premier League.
‘It would be really interesting, fascinating to see, what Mikel decides to do, whether he goes for the method of trying to keep them both happy – which is going to be very difficult – or he says, “No, from now on you’re my number one” until they make a mistake and then it’s someone else’s turn. We’re about to find out.’
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