'I'll tell you': Aaron Ramsdale names the two Arsenal players who are always sucking up to Arteta in training

By Sam Preston

Aaron Ramsdale says Cedric Soares and Martin Odegaard are the two Arsenal players who suck up to Mikel Arteta the most.

Ramsdale is the latest guest on the Peter Crouch Podcast, where the interview was more jovial than your traditional post-match fare.

The England goalkeeper is always good value anyway, and Crouch asked him who are the teacher’s pets within the Gunners squad.

The term Crouch uses for it is ‘parched‘, because when the rest of the players are having a drinks break during an intense training session, certain players are sucking up to the manager and his coaching staff instead.

“Martin Odegaard is parched,” Ramsdale said.

“To be fair he was playing for Real Madrid when he was 12. I don’t know what they are saying because they speak Spanish.

“The day after a game he [Arteta] will speak to most people in English. Maybe one of the two of the lads who’s English isn’t perfect [he’ll speak to in foreign languages].

“But Martin’s English is perfect and he’s speaking Spanish! How parched. And I’ll tell you who is another parched! Cedric Soares, he thinks he’s a future Pep. Brilliant.”

Cedric deputised well in the backline which protects Ramsdale and has helped put Arsenal in the box seat to finish in the top four.

Tottenham face Liverpool this weekend and it will be very hard for Antonio Conte’s side to get anything there, meaning that an Arsenal win over Leeds could see them go into the rearranged north London derby five points clear.