Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale has been one of the standout players in the Premier League so far this season, and is naturally being considered for the England first-team.
The 23 year-old has been called up along with Jordan Pickford and Sam Johnstone, with the Everton man having been manager Gareth Southgate’s first choice since the World Cup in 2018.
There are now calls for the Gunners summer signing to get his chance to start in goal with matches against both Albania and San Marino coming up over the next week, but reporter Adam Jones believes that Pickford is untouchable as number one.
“He faces questions about whether he will still be England’s No.1 once more, but this time he can brush them off with ease and confidence,” The reporter wrote in his column at the Liverpool Echo.
He’s still the best this country has to offer. He has been for at least 11 months now.”
We clearly have other ideas, and are reasonably sure that Gareth Southgate won’t be blinded by his previous thinking here.
Pickford has conceded 16 goals from 11 league outings, a fact that the above reporter doesn’t hide behind, while Ramsdale has conceded four goals from eight PL matches, keeping five clean sheets, and clearly has the better form so far this season.
Jones argues that the Everton shot-stopper ‘consistently makes the type of saves Ramsdale did against the Foxes without batting an eyelid’, but clearly isn’t able to match up to the majority of shots faced…
Adam Jones is clearly a little biased in favour of Jordan, while we may be a little biased towards Aaron of course, but it will be Gareth’s decision at the end of the day, although I get the feeling he will bottle out a little by starting both Pickford and Ramsdale once each in the two fixtures.
I’m aware we are all likely to be in favour of Ramsdale, but do any Arsenal fans think Pickford deserves to keep his place?
Patrick
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