Aaron Ramsdale insists he and David Raya have a good working relationship despite their ongoing battle for the Arsenal goalkeeper’s jersey.
Ramsdale started the season as Mikel Arteta’s number one but was dropped for Raya for the trip to Everton immediately after September’s international break.
Raya has kept his place ever since, bar the EFL Cup clash with Brentford.
Ramsdale concedes it’s a difficult situation but bears no ill will towards his Spanish rival despite the “suffering and hurting” he is having to endure.
He told the Guardian: “There’s a lot of attention. It’s a position where it’s famously said if you’re not spoken about, it means you’ve done a good job. There’s a lot of talk at the minute.
“Whether it is me or David who plays we need to be able to just focus and play but at the same time, it’s a strange, big headline. It’s one that we’re working through as a club and it’s one that the manager puts in front of us and we have to deal with it. That is what we are doing.
“We are with each other for three or four hours a day, there are four or five of us in that [goalkeeper] group so if we don’t get on it wouldn’t work.
“We work professionally really well together. We push each other in training and there’s days where I come in and I’m down because of the situation and he picks me up. And for whatever reason there might be a day where he’s down and even though I’m suffering and hurting for not playing I have to stand up and be able to push him.”
Ramsdale was named in the England squad for the recent doubleheader against Australia and Italy but failed to get a game with Crystal Palace’s Sam Johnstone preferred for the friendly against the Socceroos.
And the former Sheffield United and Bournemouth man accepts he can’t have any complaints if he’s not playing regularly for Arsenal.
“Sam played in this camp, I played the camp before,” Ramsdale said. “The manager [Gareth Southgate] is going to look at everyone who’s available. For me, I need to get back into my club team to keep getting picked and keep giving the manager a headache because if I’m not, then that’s an easier decision for him.”
