Dream Team’s second-most popular goalkeeper misses out on regulation clean sheet against Everton

IT finally happened.

Ever since Arsenal confirmed the recruitment of David Raya (£3.5m) on loan from Brentford, a sizeable chunk of Dream Team managers began to fear the day Aaron Ramsdale (£3.6m) would be rested/rotated/dropped.

And Sunday proved to be the day of reckoning for the 14.8% of Dream Team gaffers currently backing the England international as he was named as a substitute at Goodison Park.

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Ramsdale could only watch on as his team-mate registered a regulation clean sheet against Everton, the joint-lowest scorers in the Premier League this season.

On paper, the fixture was a golden chance for Ramsdale owners to reap the benefits of a clean sheet but it was Raya who banked seven points – the Spaniard only had one shot on target to deal with all game.

While somewhat predictable, this was a significant development in the world of Dream Team as Ramsdale is the second-most popular goalkeeper at the time of writing – only Ederson (£4.2m) appears in more teams.

Surely the former Sheffield United custodian can’t maintain such a lofty status now hes a rotation risk?

Ramsdale backers only have themselves to blame as Mikel Arteta has made it very clear that Raya is too good to sit on the bench all season.

“I cannot have two players like this in one position and not play them,” the Gunners’ boss told the BBC. “David has tremendous qualities like Aaron has… we have to use them.”

However, the gaffers in question can count themselves a tad unfortunate in regards to the timing – the match-up with the toothless Toffees resulted in Arsenal’s second clean sheet of the campaign.

Last season, Raya made 154 saves in the top flight for the Bees, ten more than his closest rival in the metric.

The 28-year-old had little to do against Sean Dyche’s side but now he’s made his debut it will be interesting to see to what extent he shares the load with Ramsdale.

It would not be a surprise to see the latter start against PSV in the Champions League on Wednesday night – an opportunity for his Dream Team backers to make up some points.

And surely Ramsdale will get the nod for the highly-anticipated north London derby in Gameweek 6, though Arteta’s men would do very well to keep clean sheet against Tottenham on current form.

Ramsdale has just 13 points to his name at this stage and the list of 14 keepers with above him in the rankings includes Sam Johnstone (£1.7m), Matt Turner (£2.2m), Wes Foderingham (£2.1m) and Neto (£2.1m).

With at least two transfers available to Dream Team bosses every Gameweek, there’s no excuse to stick by Arsenal’s No1 for much longer.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk