Chelsea among duo ‘keeping abreast’ of Ramsdale, Raya battle at Arsenal as £60m transfer concocted

Aaron Ramsdale reacts after Arsenal draw with West Ham. Credit: Alamy
Aaron Ramsdale reacts after Arsenal draw with West Ham. Credit: Alamy

Chelsea are among a pair of clubs ‘closely monitoring’ Aaron Ramsdale’s future after the Arsenal goalkeeper was dropped for David Raya on Sunday.

Raya was handed his first start of the season in the 1-0 win over Everton following his loan move from Brentford in the summer.

That loan is widely expected to become permanent and the Spaniard’s introduction has thrown Ramsdale’s role as first-choice into uncertainty.

Arteta said after the game that he would look to rotate Raya and Ramsdale through the season; also hinting that he may even make goalkeeping substitutions during games.

Ramsdale’s situation has caught the eye of both Chelsea and Bayern Munich according to the Daily Mail, who claim the pair are ‘keeping abreast of developments amid a sense that Raya was likely to overtake the England international at some stage this season’.

Bayern are looking for a long-term replacement for 38-year-old Manuel Neuer, while Chelsea are ‘open to strengthening their goalkeeping options’ despite signing Robert Sanchez from Brighton in the summer.

The Mail pluck a figure of £60m from thin air to question ‘how Arsenal would reaction if they were to receive offers in excess’ of that figure.

Here’s Arteta explaining his decision to rotate his goalkeepers.

“It’s the same rationale as to why Fabio [Vieira] and Gabby [Jesus] played – I haven’t had a single question about why Gabriel hasn’t been starting. He has won more trophies than anybody else in that dressing room, including me,” said Arteta in his press conference.

“I want Aaron to react the same as Gabriel Jesus. The same as Kai Havertz, as Takehiro Tomiyasu. Exactly the same. We play with 11 players, not 10 plus one.

“I’m a really young manager, I’ve been in the job three and a half years. I have few regrets, but one of them is that on two occasions, I felt after 60 minutes and 85 minutes of two games in this period to change the goalkeeper in that moment.

“I didn’t do it, I didn’t have the courage to do it. But I’m able to take a winger or striker and put a centre-back on to play a back five to hold on to a result. We drew those games, and I was so unhappy.

“Someone is going to do it, and maybe [people will say] that’s strange. But why not? Tell me why not. You have all the qualities in another goalkeeper to do something, you want to change the momentum, do it.

“It’s a regret that I have. Now my feeling is to get everybody engaged, that they have to play regardless of the competition. That’s my message. We adapt to our qualities that our players have, and try to play to their strengths.

“There are games to do certain things, games to do other things. In my opinion it was really important against Everton, and it was really important to benefit the team.”

Simon Jordan reckons it’s merely a case of Arteta wanting to “look clever”, but we are fully on board with goalkeepers being subbed after an hour, mainly because of the delicious possibility of the substitute making a glaring error.

READ MORE: Prem keepers ranked: Ramsdale only kept off the bottom by fellow England man

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