Aaron Ramsdale warned about toughest ‘challenge’ facing him on Arsenal return

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Aaron Ramsdale is set to return to the Arsenal starting XI on Saturday.

As loanee David Raya is ineligible to play against his parent club, Aaron Ramsdale will feature for Arsenal against Brentford on Saturday.

This will be the 25-year-old’s first Premier League outing since the Gunners hosted Manchester United in early September. Since then, Raya has established himself as the No. 1 at the Emirates Stadium.

The reshuffle in the pecking order has led to plenty of speculation about Ramsdale’s future. He has recently been urged to push for a move away from the north London club in the upcoming January transfer window. 

However, transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Ramsdale intends to stay and fight for his place.

It is certainly clear that the England man loves the club. Ramsdale has spoken out publicly about how losing his starting berth at Arsenal has hurt him. His father has also gone on record about the impact that Mikel Arteta’s decision has had on his son.

If Ramsdale is to stand any chance of getting his starting spot back he needs to impress against the Bees. Though, realistically, even that won’t make much difference. It is now abundantly clear that Raya is the manager’s preferred first choice between the sticks.

Andrew Mangan, writing for Arseblog, certainly believes that that knowledge will test Ramsdale’s mental fortitude heading into this fixture. He said, “this is where the challenge for Ramsdale is. I don’t doubt for a second he’ll be professional and do his absolute best, but it must be really tough knowing that however well you play, it doesn’t make much difference.”

Uncertain future facing Aaron Ramsdale at Arsenal

At this stage, for the sake of his own career and his prospects of involvement at EURO 2024, Ramsdale ought to be seriously considering trying to force an exit from the club.

However, Arteta would be likely to block any such attempt in January. If Ramsdale were to leave in the winter, the Gunners would need to bring in a new ‘keeper to offer back up and competition for Raya. Current third choice shot-stopper, Karl Hein, is not yet ready to step up and take on this responsibility.

Arteta will not want to spent January scrabbling for a new goalkeeper. Certainly not whilst the club are looking to invest in other areas of the pitch and only have a small transfer budget available to them in the first place. As such, Ramsdale will be made to wait. All he can do now is present the best version of himself against Brentford on Saturday and try to give Arteta more of a selection headache going forward.