Ramsdale revels in Arsenal heroics: ´It was one of those days where I saved everything´

Aaron Ramsdale was left revelling in the fact he saved “everything” during an inspirational performance as Arsenal beat Leicester City 2-0 on Saturday.

Arsenal were buoyed by two early goals as Gabriel Magalhaes and Emile Smith Rowe had them comfortably ahead inside 18 minutes, but from then Ramsdale was the key man.

A maligned pre-season arrival from Sheffield United, Ramsdale has dislodged Bernd Leno as Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper and showed why that is the case at the King Power Stadium.

He saved all eight of Leicester’s shots on target, which improved his overall save percentage for the season to 85.7, which is bettered by only Edouard Mendy (89.7) among goalkeepers to have faced more than two shots.

Further to that, according to Stats Perform’s xGOT (expected goals on target) data, Ramsdale’s saves accumulatively saw him prevent 2.4 goals against Leicester. The next best record of any goalkeeper in a single Premier League game this season was Liverpool’s Alisson preventing 1.7 against Norwich City.

The former England Under-21 international was understandably chuffed.

“Thankfully it was one of those afternoons that I contributed,” he told BT Sport. “We should have had a few more clean sheets [this season] but I’m very happy with this one.

“It was a superb result away from home against a top team. We started really well and got two good goals.”

The pick of his saves came in the first half as he tipped James Maddison’s free-kick on to the crossbar and then got enough on Jonny Evans’ follow-up effort to allow Nuno Tavares to clear off the line.

“Maddison is a top free-kick taker and I’ve come up against him a couple of times in the league and training for the [England] Under-21s,” Ramsdale said.

“I was more worried that he would reverse it and come my side. He didn’t have too much pace on it which allowed me to get there.

“It was just one of those days that I was saving everything that was thrown at me and the lads were blocking everything [else] – top day all-round.”

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel lauded that Ramsdale save from Maddison’s free-kick as the “best save I’ve seen in years”, and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta seemingly agreed, admitting he thought Leicester had scored.

Best save I’ve seen for years by Ramsdale

— Peter Schmeichel (@Pschmeichel1) October 30, 2021

“Coming from someone like him [Schmeichel], [Ramsdale] should take it the right way because it’s a big compliment,” Arteta said.

“I’ve just seen the picture [of the save], incredible. When I was watching it, I said goal once, goal twice, and he saved them both.

“Those moments, those individual actions, performances, they’re very necessary when you want some momentum and consistency in results, and we’re getting a lot of them.”