We saw many sides to Aaron Ramsdale at the weekend.
The goalkeeper had his best match in an Arsenal shirt as his heroics helped his side to a useful 2-0 win at Leicester.
Leicester were lacklustre for large parts of the match but take nothing away from Ramsdale’s excellent performance which saw him make save after save.
One particularly caught the eye as he kept out James Maddison’s curling free-kick which appeared destined for the net – a stop labelled the best save the great Peter Schmeichel has seen in years.
This didn’t deter the Foxes faithful from jeering in an attempt to psyche Ramsdale out but footage showed him give it right back to the ‘you’re s***, ahhhh!” chants after taking a free kick from inside his own box.
It was labelled ‘Jamie Vardy-esc’ by Arsenal legend Ian Wright as fans and pundits came together in their appreciation of Ramsdale’s feisty behaviour.
The player admitted to talkSPORT he got a kick out of getting his own back but there’s more depth to the character of Ramsdale than a cocksure 23-year-old, who once called lifelong Gunners fan Piers Morgan an ‘absolute w*****’ on Twitter.
When joining Arsenal in the summer, Ramsdale was surrounded by his family and also brought the ashes of his late grandfather to the contract signing.
He was humble in his response to Schmeichel’s praise, although later included that Ramsdale humour as he admitted the Manchester United legend wasn’t necessarily to his taste when he was first learning the art of goalkeeping.
On Schmeichel’s praise, Ramsdale told talkSPORT: “It’s like someone’s hacked his Twitter! It’s crazy and quite hard to explain.
“With Kasper being at the other end and Peter tweeting that, it was a special moment for me to see that when I came into the dressing room.”
And when asked if he looked up to Schmeichel growing up, Ramsdale said: “I’ll be totally honest, no!
“I knew all about him, I watched many, many highlights and save reel stuff on him. I wasn’t much of a Manchester United fan and when I was growing up and started goalkeeping I think he would’ve been retiring.”
Ramsdale also showed great maturity in not wanting to get ahead of himself either despite claims he should be England’s No.1, responding with a dash of hilarity once again.
He said: “I think I’ve got to get a cap first!
“A lot of people in the news say that I’ve set my sights on England No.1 and stuff, and of course that’s the end goal.
“But Sam [Johnstone] and Jordan [Pickford] over the past two camps have played the game so first of all I’ve got to get that cap. To be honest it’s all about playing well with Arsenal. I think the England stuff comes when you play well for your team.
“It’s going to be very hard. Jordan’s been phenomenal for England. I thought he was one of, if not the best player for us at Euro 2020.”
And on whether the talk at Arsenal is to finish in the top four this season, he added: “No!
“We haven’t really had a discussion… we’ve got a young team and of course the aspirations are getting into the top four but first and foremost we have to keep this form going.
“As soon as we start getting ahead of ourselves, our form will drop at the first chance.
“It’s nice to be mentioned within that category but we’re still a work-in-progress. Form’s great at the moment but we know there’s a lot of work we have to continue doing.”
It would’ve been easy for Ramsdale form to flop as his former Bournemouth teammate and close friend David Brooks was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin lymphoma.
Ramsdale shed light on the support he’s offering Brooks in his battle against the illness, rounding it off with a brilliant message that sends us all a reminder that football isn’t always worth getting so down about.
On Brooks, Ramsdale said: “Yeah, he’s good. I was with him the other week and it was quite difficult… he’s now got a new hairstyle, which he’s fully rocking.
“He’s just chilled, he’s like horizontal. He’s more bothered about what his hair looks like! We speak near enough every day and it’s good I can go and see him at Bournemouth.
“It’s not a great thing but Dan Barden at Norwich as well has come out as well… I wish them all the best in their recovery.
“It just shows that football’s not the be all and end all.”