Manchester United legend Andy Cole has accused Mikel Arteta of ‘mugging off’ one of his Arsenal players.
The Gunners currently sit top of the table on 71 points, level on points with Liverpool but ahead on goal difference, with seven games remaining in the Premier League.
Mikel Arteta’s side are also in the hunt for glory in the Champions League and will travel to Germany next week to face Bayern Munich after drawing 2-2 at the Emirates earlier this week.
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Cole, who started his career at the London side, believes one of Arsenal’s players has been mistreated by the Gunners boss despite their excellent season so far.
Arteta made a shock decision in the summer transfer window to bring in David Raya from Brentford despite Aaron Ramsdale establishing himself as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper.
He initially claimed that both keepers would be rotated throughout the campaign but Raya has quickly become Arteta’s no.1 choice in between the sticks with Ramsdale making just two Premier League appearances since Raya made his debut.
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Ramsdale is unlikely to feature again and Cole believes he must seriously consider his future at the club after being ‘mugged off’ by his manager.
“Nine times out of ten, when a player moves to a different club, they’re meant to be their new club’s number one centre-forward, centre-half, goalkeeper or whatever it may be,” he told Betfred.
“If Aaron makes the move, he will be Newcastle’s number one goalkeeper.
“I think he’s been hard done by, I really do. He was so good for Arsenal last season and then all of a sudden, Mikel Arteta has gone out and got a new goalkeeper and initially claimed that he had two number ones, which was complete nonsense from day one.
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“The way he’s disregarded Ramsdale has been really disrespectful. He’s mugged him off basically.
“I like how he goes about his business and he deserves to be treated with a bit more respect, so if he does move on from Arsenal, then he certainly would do a good job at Newcastle.”
Raya’s loan deal is set to be made permanent at the end of the season but Arteta has warned Ramsdale that no talks on his future at the club will take place before the end of the season.
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He said: “Now is the season, now is tomorrow, now is what we have done today and how can we improve tomorrow.
“And those talks are for much after, I think.”
Marcus Banks