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Liverpool hero Jamie Carragher has rushed to the defence of Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta regarding his decision to drop Aaron Ramsdale for David Raya in recent times. The Spaniard has opted to start Raya in goal ahead of fellow goalkeeper Ramsdale in each of the Gunners' last two matches.

Certain fans and sections of the media alike have questioned Arteta's choice, with some claiming that Ramsdale did little wrong before losing his spot in the starting line-up. But Carragher has admitted that he finds the criticism bizarre.

“There has been a lot of sympathy for Ramsdale since Arteta signed Raya and made it known he was not joining as a back-up,” Carragher wrote for the Telegraph. “The ferocity of some of the criticism baffles me.

"During last season’s title run-in, Arsenal wilted during the pressure moments. The margins were small in some of those games in which they dropped critical points, and Arteta will have analysed in depth how and where they could have been better.

"The goalkeeping position was one of those areas. Ramsdale enjoyed a superb game against Liverpool at Anfield, but his form dipped immediately afterwards.

“In the following three games against West Ham, Southampton and Manchester City he was poor. Again, this is not a case of singling him out to suggest if Arsenal had a better keeper last season they would have fended off City.

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"There were several factors involved in their failure to get over the line. Nevertheless, when you have a studious coach such as Arteta who is always demanding more from himself and everyone around him, it is unsurprising he took his chance to sign Raya when he became available.

"If a manager’s instinct tells him he is not completely happy with his keeper, he will act." Arsenal icon Ian Wright has agreed with Carragher's assessment of the situation, praising Arteta's decision-making.

“You know something that I like about our manager, he does his business,” Wright told Rio Ferdinand's FIVE YouTube Channel. “He has brought this on himself because he knows whatever comes out of this, he is going to deal with it.

"I love how Mikel is because it is all about winning for Mikel, it is all about the margin of games. We saw with the Everton game that we needed someone like that.

"He puts in Raya, we take like eight short corners. He is using the margins.

“What we are seeing after playing in two consecutive games, people are asking if he is going to be the number 1, we will see against Tottenham. If that is the case, what are we going to do? What are we going to say about our manager? Of course, you feel for Ramsdale.

"I think we are going to see it change even more because people are going to use the special team kind of vibe. We are going to see two top goalkeepers in a team.

“We are going to see how it plays out this season, because we are going to see how they both feel about it, how it is going to go because it might be shared out. I think that we might be seeing the start of something revolutionary.

"Who am I picking? No man, they will feel the energy if I picked one of those. I want both of them to do it for us.”

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