MANCHESTER — Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale had his baseball cap pulled down and a look of disappointment on his face.
After their 4-1 hammering at Manchester City which put a huge dent in their dwindling Premier League title hopes you can understand his downbeat persona. But he isn’t giving up. Not yet.
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With five games to go Arsenal sit two points clear atop the Premier League table but City now have two games in-hand and have one hand on the trophy.
Speaking to reporters in the tunnel area after the defeat at Man City, Ramsdale was open and honest and believes anything is still possible.
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Gunners not giving up hope
“We are going to be disappointed now but we have not played nine months of Premier League football and played the way we wanted to play to give up with five games to go,” Ramsdale said. “If something is going to happen in football, it is going to happen in this league. It might not. But stranger things have happened in the Premier League.
“You see how tight it is at the bottom, at the top, so we are going to be pushing to win every game. We have five games left and we want to win five games and we will see how that ends at the end of the season. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We will get over it tonight, the manager will dissect it and tell us and we will work on everything we can.”
Why did Arsenal struggle so much?
“The first 45 minutes we were a yard off the pace, pressing battles and giving them chances. If you want to come here and get anything you have to out-run and out-fight them. For 45 minutes we were just a bit off,” Ramsdale explained.
He also explained that Manchester City are the benchmark for this young Arsenal side and they want to be challenging for all four trophies on an annual basis just like City are.
“We are bitterly disappointed. We came here with a plan to win the game. Disappointment is a key word. When you give arguably one of the best teams in the world at the minute arguably a leg up in the game and it is 2-0 at half time it is a tough task to overcome. We know we are better than that but this is where we want to be as a team. To be like and to be competing on all fronts like they are at the minute,” Ramsdale said.
“They have been one of the best teams in the league the last five years along with Liverpool. They could potentially do the treble. They are in the Champions League quarters, semis, finals most seasons. Pushing for the Premier League. We want to get to the same sort of level as Man City, doing it our own way and competing in four competitions like they are.”
Aiming to stay at the top table
Erling Haaland got his goal in the 95th minute but for most of the game Ramsdale kept him at bay, pulling off sensational saves and being one of the only Arsenal players to come out of the game with a positive player rating.
Did he enjoy his duel with Haaland?
“I enjoyed the whole game. These games you want to be involved in. At the moment, the two best teams in the league are going at it and the best players on the pitch,” Ramsdale said ProSoccerTalk. “I’m devastated I got to 94 minutes 50 seconds or whatever it was and that is probably the [Haaland] goal which I’m most annoyed about and which I should save. It was a good battle and I hopefully can have these battles with other players over the years.”
For so long Arsenal have been the hunted but now they are the hunters. Does that make a difference to Ramsdale?
“I know from a different part of the table that you prefer to have points on the board than to be chasing. We will go into each game, five games to go we will try to win all five, and see where that leaves us.”
Aaron Ramsdale: Arsenal not giving up on title originally appeared on NBCSports.com