In April 2023, Aaron Ramsdale was within touching distance of winning the Premier League with Arsenal. But the goalkeeper made a costly error for the Gunners to give away the opening goal in a 3-3 draw with Southampton at Emirates Stadium which contributed to the demise of Arsenal's 2022-23 title bid. If Arsenal had won that game, the title would have been in their hands.
Instead, the draw handed the initiative to Manchester City, who took full advantage. It was a mistake which perhaps also signalled the beginning of the end for Ramsdale under Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. Four months later, the north London club brought in David Raya from Brentford and the Spaniard quickly claimed the number one spot.
And in a somewhat unfortunate poetic twist, it is the Saints where Ramsdale finds himself completely out of favour three years on as the fourth-choice goalkeeper at a Championship club. From an England international on the cusp of greatness, Ramsdale is now in the almost unthinkable situation of being without senior football this season in the prime of his career at the age of 28. So why has Ramsdale had such a fall from grace and where have things gone wrong?
Questions were raised among the Arsenal fanbase when the club paid £24m to sign Ramsdale from Sheffield United in August 2021 after the Blades had been relegated from the top flight. But he quickly won supporters over by producing a string of excellent saves in his debut season, perhaps most notably against Leicester City when he denied a James Maddison free-kick at full stretch - a save which Peter Schmeichel described at the time as "the best I've seen for years". After ousting Bernd Leno, his efforts helped Arsenal finish fifth in 2021-22, improving on an eighth-placed finish the previous year.
The following season, Ramsdale was a vital cog in Arsenal's spine as they launched a surprise title challenge, only to be outdone by an imperious Manchester City side. Despite his blunder in the draw with Southampton - which was one of several results that dented Arsenal's title hopes - Ramsdale made the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) team of the year and was also named goalkeeper of the year at the London Football Awards. But Ramsdale quickly fell behind Raya in the pecking order in 2023-24 and lost his starting berth after just four league games.
And in one of the only two other Premier League matches he did play that season against Raya's then parent club Brentford, Ramsdale made another mistake to allow Yoane Wissa to put the Bees ahead. Arsenal recovered to win that game 2-1 in March 2024. But Ramsdale never played for the club again.
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