Brilliant Ramsdale impresses Schmeichel as Arsenal frustrate Foxes and go fifth
Arsenal's Gabriel Magalhaes celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the Premier League match at the King Power Stadium, Leicester. Picture: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire
Arsenal moved up to fifth in the Premier League table with their best away performance of the season and first half goals from Gabriel and Emile Smith Rowe.
But for all the plaudits gained by Mikel Arteta's outfield players, it was goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale who won the match of the match award.
Ramsdale made a series of stunning saves including one world-class effort from a James Maddison free-kick shortly before half-time.
That could have brought Leicester back into the match, but his full stretch acrobatic leap was Manchester United and Denmark legend Peter Schmeichel described it as “the best save I have seen for years'.
And that was with his son Kasper playing well in the Leicester goal too!
The Arsenal fans, who have been completely won over by Ramsdale's' ability and enthusiasm since his £25m summer signing from Sheffield United started chanting for him to be made 'England's NO.1”
It is an ambition the young keeper has ahead of the World Cup in Qatar next year and manager Mikel Arteta said: “When you dream big and stay rooted at the same time you can achieve anything.
“It is down to him to keep working as hard as he has so far and good things will follow.
"We invest in talent and people we think can have a good long-term impact on the club. He made some incredible saves, but now we challenge him to do that in the next match and for the next 20 years.”
Arsenal were already two goals to the good – thanks to Gabriel's fifth-minute header from a corner and Smith Rowe's straightforward finish 13 minutes later after good work from the impressive Bukayo Saka and Alex Lacazette.
But Leicester were coming back into the game when Ramsdale denied Maddison and Arteta added:
"It is within his potential. When Maddison struck I said ‘goal’ so I don’t know how he saved it – and it came at a crucial time for us.
“We played well, but we also had to suffer and we can still improve a lot in many areas.”
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers was not so impressed with his own side, accusing them of lacking concentration from the start of the match.
But he also credited Ramsdale for seeing Arsenal over the line.
Rodgers commented: “Big applause for Ramsdale ad he made some outstanding saves. I thought we were excellent in the second half and a draw would have been a fair result, but the keeper made some outstanding blocks.”
Schmeichel 7, Amartey 5 (Barnes 45), Evans 5, Soyuncu 6, Castagne 6, Tielemans 6, Soumare 6, Thomas 5, Maddison 6 (Daka 71), Iheanacho 5 (Lookman 45), Vardy 5.
Ramsdale 9, Tomiyasu 7, White 7, Gabriel 7, Tavares 7, Partey 7, Lokonga 7, Saka 8 (Pepe 85), Smith Rowe 8 (Kolasinac 85), Aubameyang 7, Lacazette 7 (Odegaard 58).
Michael Oliver 7
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