David Raya makes his Arsenal debut on Sunday as he’s been named in the starting line-up for the first time to face Everton at Goodison Park. This therefore means Aaron Ramsdale has dropped to the bench for the first time in a Premier League match since he made his debut in 2021.
Arsenal signed David Raya from Brentford this summer on an initial £3million loan deal with an obligation to buy of £27million. Mikel Arteta wanted two top quality keepers he could rely on this season with the Gunners back in the Champions League for the first time in seven years. We’re set to see Mikel Arteta’s idea in action for the first time after he’s decided to alternate his keeper for the game at Goodison Park on Sunday.
With Arsenal facing two massive games next week against PSV on Wednesday and then the North London Derby on Sunday, it looks like Mikel Arteta has decided to switch his keepers in order to give Aaron Ramsdale a rest ahead of starting the game in the Champions League in mid-week.
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Mikel Arteta made it clear when he signed David Raya that he doesn’t have a specific number one this season, although Aaron Ramsdale is the man that wears the shirt. He wants his keepers to push each other, to make each other better and to fight for the shirt with it being shared throughout the season. We’re seeing the first example of that this afternoon at Goodison Park.
We expect Aaron Ramsdale to come back into the team on Wednesday evening to face PSV in Arsenal’s first game in the Champions League in six years. Ramsdale was a big reason last season why the Gunners returned to the top four in the Premier League, and we expect Mikel Arteta will want to reward the player with his Champions League debut next week.
Mikel Arteta on starting David Raya against Everton: “I think I mentioned it that we wanted to build a squad with two quality players in each position, with different characteristics, and we have got that now. And to maximise that they have to play games, and we have a lot of things coming up now.”
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