‘He’s absolute business’: Mikel Arteta says one Arsenal player is ‘so demanding’

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has heaped praise on the character Aaron Ramsdale has shown since joining the club from Sheffield United.

The Englishman wasn’t a popular choice among fans at the Emirates, but he has won them over. He has been absolutely incredible since coming in for Bernd Leno and many fans believe that he should be England’s number one now as well.

The criticism Ramsdale’s signing received in the summer is understandable. The 23-year-old suffered relegation in each of his last two seasons in the Premier League, conceding a combined 125 goals and keeping just 10 clean sheets in 75 games.

That was a big worry, but Arteta has now revealed what convinced him that Ramsdale was the right man, even after watching him make plenty of mistakes.

Arteta: Ramsdale is so demanding

The Gunners boss said, as per Arseblog: “I think his competitiveness on the pitch brings the crowd to a different level because it’s his application and desire to win. This is the mentality that we need.

“Each time I watched a game, I wanted to watch a lot of clips and moments after he was conceding a goal, making a mistake or in a difficult moment. One of the big reasons why we made a decision to sign him was because he could cope with those.

“He has this character where he’s able to do that but the moment that we’re working, he’s absolute business and is so demanding, there’s no laughs, no room for any complacency, it’s just about winning.”

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Nobody expected Ramsdale to have the kind of impact he has had over the last two months. He has played a massive part in helping Arsenal turn things around, and he’ll be a hugely important player in the coming weeks.

Ramsdale is still only 23. That’s extremely young for a goalkeeper and the fact that he is already so good is a bonus. He has over a decade’s football left in him and if he can carry this on, the big-money Arsenal spent on him will look like a bargain.

It will be interesting to see if Ramsdale can keep up his form until the end of this season. If he can, Arsenal may just sneak into the top-four, which looked absolutely impossible after the first three games of the season.