Aaron Ramsdale played every minute of our league season last season, winning the Premier League Save of the Month award twice and keeping a total of 14 clean sheets.
But that hasn’t stopped Mikel Arteta from further strengthening his position as goalkeeper by signing Spanish international David Raya from Brentford.
The boss believes that increased competition within the squad will improve the environment across the board and that it is healthy for any position, whether in goal or outfield.
“When we had different goalkeepers, there were also questions,” Arteta said during the pre-match press conference. “It’s great to have two great goalkeepers, there’s nothing wrong with that. We have two great left wingers, two great forwards and two great midfielders. We have Jorginho, Thomas and Declan and that’s not a problem and it shouldn’t be.
“We want to improve every day and to improve the environment it must change and improve. We tend to always be on a certain level because it’s in our nature – if you change the environment and the environment has to be 100% every day, trust me, the level goes up.
“I’ve seen it up close with my own eyes with the players we have now versus the ones we had two years ago. If we want to improve, we have to create that environment.”
The coach added that there is no permanent first-choice goalkeeper this season, but so are the rest of his squad. When asked who was number one, he replied: “In any position? NO. Nine, seven, eleven, six, goalkeeper-no, it’s not there,” he confirmed.
Arteta also explained why he brought Raya to the club, stressing the need for quality coverage for all players.
“[It brings] better qualities to our game model, it’s very simple,” said the boss. “We want two players per position who can do it and you saw what happened to Jurrien, it can happen to our goalkeeper, it happened to Courtois [of Real Madrid].
“You have to be prepared because the question will be, ‘What is it, two goalkeepers of that size? “What if Aaron were to suffer a cruciate ligament injury, what would you say? So we have to be prepared, we have to be proactive and we now have two great goalkeepers who fit our model perfectly, so I’m very happy with that.”
After completing his transfer on Tuesday, Raya, 27 – who was ever-present for the Bees in the Premier League last season – is eligible to be included in the matchday squad for the first time on Monday night, just like us. Crystal Palace.
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