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Football London
Football London
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Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Aaron Ramsdale's reaction to Bernd Leno save during Arsenal training proves Mikel Arteta right

The Arsenal squad are in good spirits ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash against Southampton as they look to bounce back from the two successive defeats which have dented their top-four hopes.

After Mikel Arteta's decision to start Granit Xhaka at left-back against Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend backfired, the Gunners boss could ring the changes for the trip to the South Coast amid a theory that Nuno Tavares is in line for a recall to the starting line-up.

One player expected to keep his place in the Arsenal side against the Saints is goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale. Although, Bernd Leno has issued a timely reminder that he can be called upon in the case of any emergency.

READ MORE: Bukayo Saka beats off competition from Tottenham and Chelsea stars to earn PFA award

Ahead of the game at St Mary's, the likes of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Nicolas Pepe were put through their paces at the club's training base at London Colney and the main focus of the session was extra shooting practice as Arteta looks to find a solution for his misfiring forwards.

As a result, Leno, Ramsdale and U23's goalkeeper James Hillson - presumably called up in the absence of third-choice stopper Arthur Okonkwo - were in the firing line. In truth, the Gunners' forwards were able to find the net with the majority of their attempts, but there were one or two displays of fine shot-stopping.

Particularly one from Leno. At around the 7.08-minute mark in the 'Behind the scenes at Arsenal training' video uploaded to YouTube, Emile Smith Rowe stoops to guide a header at goal only for the Germany international to produce a fine finger-tip save to deny the Gunners no.10 and draw praise from Hillson and two coaches behind the goal.

Moments later Ramsdale appears in the frame and has his hand on his head, clearly in disbelief at Leno's save whilst showing support for his understudy who received even more adulation for denying Pepe in a 1v1 situation and made sure to ask the club's video operator that his moments in the spotlight were captured.

Of course, the special bond between the two keepers won't come as a surprise to Arsenal fans with Arteta being proved right about the atmosphere behind the scenes at the club with regards to the lengths Ramsdale will go to support Leno.

"He wasn’t comfortable in the last 50 minutes against Liverpool," said Arteta after the England international was ruled out of the 1-0 win over Aston Villa last month through injury. "He wanted to be here to support Bernd [Leno] which tells you about a lot of things behind the scenes."

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