Arsenal legend David Seaman says his former club would “rather face” Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy than Kepa Arrizabalaga this weekend.

Kepa is expected to be sidelined with a foot injury for the London derby, so Mendy is likely to keep his place after starting versus Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday. Seaman says the Gunners are lucky that they won’t be coming up against the in-form Spaniard:

“At this moment, you’d rather face Mendy because he hasn’t played for a while,” said Seaman on his former side. Kepa has been playing really well, there’s no doubt about that. He’s been making some big saves. In both of them, you’ve still got two high quality, international goalkeepers.”

While Mendy has struggled for form at the start of the season, you would still back the Senegalese international to put in a strong performance on Sunday.

It could be reasonably argued that he lost place more down to injury than anything else and, while it is a blow that Kepa won’t be available, Seaman is right to say that they are both excellent keepers.

Manager Graham Potter will know, though, that they will have to improve on last week’s poor defensive display against Brighton or Mendy will be in for a very busy afternoon.