What David Raya showed in his Arsenal debut at Goodison Park, where the London Gunners triumphed without conceding a goal, made their fans feel secure in the long-distance race, but caused a lot of worry. for Aaron Ramsdale.
Mikel Arteta’s decision to let Raya start the away trip against Everton instead of the familiar Ramsdale was one of the topics discussed by fans and experts after Arsenal’s lineup was announced. This is the Spanish goalkeeper’s first appearance for the Emiratse home team since he was loaned out for a fee of £3 million this summer.
There would be nothing worth mentioning if Arteta proactively announced the replacement of the main goalkeeper early, rather than letting the information spread this way. Ramsdale was fit and ready for battle but was not used and had to sit on the bench for Raya at Goodison Park.
However, fortunately Raya was not psychologically affected, affecting his debut for the new team. In fact, the Spanish goalkeeper did not have too much to do in the match against Everton. However, Raya’s handling shows the difference.
“To be honest, Raya doesn’t have much to do under not too much pressure from the home team. But what he has to do is run out and receive the ball from a number of set situations and corners. And, he does it really, really well.
You can just imagine how much confidence this really gives to your defense and the players up front, knowing for sure that you have someone behind you who gives you peace. calm, solid, and extremely assured to rush forward”, Arsenal legend Ian Wright was very impressed with Raya’s performance.
In the entire match against Everton, this 28-year-old goalkeeper only had one save, but made many effective ball recoveries and had extremely good footwork. Specifically, in 96 minutes of playing on the field, Raya touched the ball 45 times, completed 94% of 34 passes, swung up 9 times, 7 times to the correct address, winning 100% of the matches. Dueling with opposing players.
That is, despite being under a lot of unnecessary pressure, Raya still went through the match confidently, entered and exited reasonably, calmly handled with his feet when pressed by the opponent and had many long passes to the top. achieve high accuracy.
When watching Raya play with his feet, Arsenal fans have the feeling that he is much calmer and more confident than Ramsdale every time his opponent approaches him. When in that situation, Ramsdale almost always chooses the solution of flicking long upwards (regardless of whether the ball reaches a teammate or not, as long as it clears far away from the home team’s goal), while Raya remains calm to flick it. got the ball into the feet of a teammate (7/9 of Raya’s long passes in the match against Everton were on target).
Not only that, Raya coordinates relatively well with the home team’s defense to ensure maximum safety for Arsenal’s wooden frame. Watching him play, people do not feel like a rookie, but like they have played with The Gunners for a few seasons. Overall, Arsenal currently owns two quality goalkeepers for the long-distance battle.