Football injury expert Ben Dinnery, who contributes for Sky Sports, has given his thoughts on Aaron Ramsdale and his place in the Arsenal team in their next game.
The 23-year-old has been an instrumental part of Arsenal getting to where they are this season, currently sitting in the driving seat when it comes to qualifying for the Champions League.
His save rate of 78.7% and clean sheet rate of 50% both rank third in the Premier League (via FBRef) as Arsenal have recovered from their worst start in the league in 67 years to having conceded the fifth-fewest goals in the league so far this season.
He recently sustained an injury that forced him to miss their game against Aston Villa before the international break, and also caused him to withdraw from international duty, and it looks as if Monday night’s game against Crystal Palace might have come too soon for him.
Speaking on his YouTube channel (1:40), Dinnery assessed that it might in fact be Ramsdale’s backup in Bernd Leno that will have to take on the Eagles in a critical game for the Gunners:
“He missed out on game week 30 with a muscular problem referenced as a hip/oblique issue by Mikel Arteta before that game week 30 kick-off. Now at the minute he’s still not training with the team, he’s only got an outside chance of recovering. I would suggest that it may come too soon and Bernd Leno could be thrown back in there between the sticks.”
TIF Thoughts on Ben Dinnery’s comments about Aaron Ramsdale at Arsenal…
Has Ramsdale been Arsenal's best player this season?
Yes
No
Hopefully this isn’t something that will affect him long-term, because his impact at the club this season cannot be doubted as the stats above demonstrate, especially when you compare it to Leno’s numbers from last season as he only saved 69.2% of the shots he faced and had a clean sheet 31.4% of the time (via FBRef).
Judging by Dinnery’s assessment of the situation, and how he isn’t training with the team and this week is too soon, it doesn’t sound all that promising for the next few weeks at least. And given how important the next few games could be when it comes to reaching the top four, this might set a few alarm bells ringing around the Emirates.
Hopefully Leno’s performances this season are better than what he was able to do last season, or Arsenal could soon lose a grip on that spot.
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