MIKEL ARTETA has opened up on his ruthless decision to axe Arsenal No1 Aaron Ramsdale and revealed the feeling it left “in his tummy”.
The England international was replaced in the Gunner’s last two fixtures by summer signing David Raya.
Raya, 28, joined on a season-long loan from Brentford last month.
Arsenal have a £27million option to buy the Spaniard at the end of the 2023-24 campaign if he succeeds at the Emirates Stadium.
This looks like it could be the case as Arteta has favoured him over first-choice shot-stopper Ramsdale in their 1-0 victory against Everton on Sunday.
The Spaniard also picked the newcomer to start in their Champions League opener against PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday.
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Arteta has favoured Ramsdale since March 2022 – and the Englishman had started every game for Arsenal since 2022 up until their match with the Toffees at the weekend.
Arteta admitted dropping Aaron Ramsdale left an uncomfortable feeling “in his tummy”, and has yet to decide who will start in the Arsenal goal against Tottenham on Sunday.
Arteta said: “It is very difficult with every player. And I suffer and I care about every player who is not playing.
“But this is the competition and this is my job to make decisions in the best possible way for the team.
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“In your tummy when you have players sitting out and you have to announce the line-up, it is one of the hardest things.”
The decision to give Raya the opportunity to prove himself worthy of being the club’s No1 has been fiercely debated by the Emirates faithful.
But Arteta has reinforced that these decisions need to be made in football.
He continued: “Players feel valued and happy when they play. And when they don’t, it is very difficult.
“You want them to feel loved and trusted, and the way to do it is to play them.
“But everybody understands it is a team sport and it is always 11 players starting.
“But we have seen how important everybody is going to be in the season, and not look back at the team that have played the first six or seven games of the season.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
