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Mikel Arteta hails 'exceptional' Arsenal star who could be title hero 'against the odds'
Mikel Arteta has hailed the performances and impact of one Arsenal star he was desperate to sign early on.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admits Aaron Ramsdale's rise to being the club's No 1 was "against the odds". The Spaniard credits his goalkeeper for playing a huge part in the transformation of his team as they go in search of a first title in 19 years.
Arsenal's purchase of Ramsdale in the summer of 2021 raised many eyebrows. The Gunners splashed out an initial £24million on a player who had been relegated in three of the previous four seasons.
Two of those included back-to-back relegations in the Premier League with Bournemouth and Sheffield United. But he quickly replaced Bernd Leno as the No 1 at the Emirates and how he has cemented his spot has earned big praise from his manager.
Arteta said: "He has been really, really good. And probably against the odds because when you look at his past and where he was coming from, he was relegated twice, so it was difficult to imagine it.
"But we saw he had that character, charisma and personality to play for our club and he had the potential qualities to feed into our way of playing. It’s his consistency.
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"He is number one. He's decisive in key moments, especially in our way of playing, key moments to be able to play the way we want to play, in defence and attack.
"Also what he transmits to the rest of the team and to the outside world. When you see the development he has had the past two seasons I think he is exceptional."
Arsenal's interest in Ramsdale was a saga that lasted a couple of months. But Arteta knew from day one he was the goalkeeper he wanted to spearhead his revival.
He and his recruitment team decided on Ramsdale after a game against the Blades the previous season. Arteta added: "The first day I was on the phone to him, I said, ‘let’s do it, let’s do it’.
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"Because you have that feeling you sense when someone is mentally ready. Any question you ask him to see how he will answer.
"He is ready for it, he has seen ahead, he knows what is coming and he knows what he wants and he feels capable of doing it. He has no fear, he was just looking at the challenge ahead of him and that is what you want.
"[We decided to sign him after] we played against him and obviously I'd watched him a lot. It was that presence and that energy he had, I thought: ‘This is the one.’
"We had many discussions and many possibilities but we made the decision altogether and were comfortable and we were happy to do it."
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