Aaron Ramsdale is the most impactful under-25 goalkeeper across the 59 leagues assessed in a recent report by the CIES Football Observatory.

In their weekly post this week, the CIES Football Observatory rated all under-25 footballers across the 59 leagues they assess based on 15 technical profiles, from allrounder target man to playmaker creator.

They judged players in a number of different areas, from their air defence to their ground defence, their distribution, shooting, and so on. They then compared them to teammates, opponents, and other players in the same profile.

One of the profiles was ‘goalkeeper’, and Aaron Ramsdale came out on top with an impact score of 90.6. The Arsenal man has had his ups and downs since joining the club last summer, but he’s clearly won the CIES team over.

Arsenal also topped the ‘shooter creator’ list, with Bukayo Saka scoring 93.1, and Martin Odegaard joining him in 7th with 86.0.

Those were the only two of the 15 categories Arsenal topped, but they had entrants on a number of other lists – perhaps unsurprisingly given the youth of Mikel Arteta’s side. Chelsea were the only other Premier League club to top any of the categories (with one).

Below is a list of every other Arsenal player who appeared, with the category name and the primary factors that identify entrants in that category in brackets.

• Pure blocker (blocks) – Ben White, 5th, 88.0
• Air blocker filter man (air defence and recovery) – Takehiro Tomiyasu, 4th, 82.8, and Albert Sambi Lokonga, 8th, 75.4
• Ground blocker filter man (ground defence and recovery) – William Saliba, 4th, 87.2

This report largely just tells us what we already know. Arsenal have a group of talented youngsters performing very well for their age, and they’ll hopefully continue to push on in the coming years.