Piers Morgan blasts Mikel Arteta for 'humiliating' Arsenal star ahead of Everton win

Piers Morgan has ripped into Mikel Arteta for his decision to start David Raya ahead of Aaron Ramsdale for Arsenal's win over Everton on Sunday.

The Gunners ran out 1-0 victors at Goodison Park thanks to a fantastic first-time finish from Leandro Trossard, while Raya made his debut for the club since making his £3million loan move from Brentford over the summer.

However, Arteta's decision to bench usual No. 1 goalkeeper Ramsdale was met by criticism from Arsenal fan Morgan, who was left baffled by the lineup.

Taking to social media before kick-off to share his thoughts, the 58-year-old tweeted: "I don’t understand what Ramsdale has done to deserve being dropped? Havertz, yes.. but Ramsdale’s been consistently superb for us. Why humiliate him?"

Although plenty of others have suggested that Ramsdale was merely being rested ahead of Arsenal's Champions League opening clash against PSV on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the game, Arteta denied the notion that Raya's inclusion was indicative of his first-choice shot-stopper moving forward.

"I think I mentioned that we wanted to be the squad with two quality players in this position with different characteristics and and we've got that now," Arteta told Sky Sports.

"To maximise that we have to play games and we've got a lot of games coming up now and it's the same as other players where we have rotated and they will get a lot of game time in the next few games."

But Morgan wasn't having any of it, replying to the Arsenal manager's comments on Twitter: "Hmmm.. has any team ever won the League by rotating 2 top goalkeepers? I have no idea, but I doubt it."

Kai Havertz, who signed for Arsenal from Chelsea for a whopping £65 million over the summer, was also dropped for the contest in place of Fabio Vieira.

Havertz hasn't had the easiest start to life in north London, with the German international's move from Stamford Bridge voted the worst transfer of the summer by agents.

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Topics: Mikel Arteta, Arsenal, Aaron Ramsdale, Football, Premier League

Joe Adams

Joe is a Journalist for SPORTbible with a primary focus on football. He has previously covered a number of other sports including boxing, rugby and F1. Wishes he was born left-footed.

@joeadamsjourno