Mikel Arteta’s decision to drop Aaron Ramsdale raised a few eyebrows at first, but David Raya has quickly silenced the Arsenal boss’ critics.
Oleksandr Zinchenko has lauded David Raya for his playmaking ability following Arsenal’s win over Bournemouth at the weekend. The Gunners waltzed away from the Vitality Stadium 4-0 victors thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Ben White.
While Arsenal put on another stellar attacking display, Mikel Arteta was just as impressed with his side’s ability to keep another clean sheet while on the road. The north Londoners are yet to concede a single goal away from home across all competitions this season despite daunting visits to Goodison Park, Selhurst Park and the Gtech Community Stadium.
“It is a huge one,” said Arteta. “I think to win games in this league, keeping clean sheets for us is going to be crucial. Away from home it [the number of clean sheets] has probably been bigger. Now, the challenge is now can we take that into the Emirates as well and be consistent there.”
David Raya a great manager
Raya managed to keep two of the Gunners’ four clean sheets on the road this term, and he’ll be hoping to extend his record on Tuesday night when Arsenal travel to France to face RC Lens in the Champions League. However, the Spain international is more than just a shot-stopper – he’s also an exceptional ball-playing goalkeeper.
During the Bournemouth game, Raya evidenced his ability in possession with numerous impressive passes – short, medium and long range. One pass in particular to Zinchenko inside the opening 10 minutes caught the eye,
With the Ukrainian turning and spearheading an attack.
Posting a clip of the moment on X, formerly know as Twitter, a supporter wrote:
“Zinchenko is still the King of the inverted full backs in the Premier League. Gives Arsenal so much control in possession.”
The Arsenal left-back quoted retweeted the fans’ post and redirected the praise to Raya. Zinchenko wrote: “The pass from Raya [okay hand emoji].”
Upon Raya’s move to Arsenal, Arteta explained exactly why he wanted to sign the Spaniard. He said: “He brings the qualities for our game model, it’s very simple. We want two players per position. You see what happened to Jurrien [Timber] and that could happen to our goalkeeper.
“It recently happened to [Real Madrid’s] Thibaut Courtois so we have to be prepared. We have to be prepared and we have to be proactive so now we have two excellent goalkeepers now who fit our style.”
