Why Mikel Arteta Has Been Proven Right About Signing David Raya

SportsLens analyse the performances of Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Raya and why Mikel Arteta has been proven right to upgrade from Aaron Ramsdale.

Why Did Arteta Want David Raya?

At the end of last season, few would’ve said that Arsenal are in need of a new goalkeeper. Aaron Ramsdale kept 13 clean sheets in the Premier League’s 22/23 campaign; only David De Gea (17) and Alisson (14) kept more. He was also included in the PFA Team of the Season and was part of England’s 2022 World Cup squad, despite not featuring.

It’s possible that even Mikel Arteta didn’t plan to replace the 25-year-old, or at least not this soon. However, as interest from Nottingham Forest grew in then-substitute goalkeeper Matt Turner, Arsenal saw a market opportunity.

Arteta had tried to sign David Raya back in 2020, when Brentford were still in the Championship, so it was already known that he was fond of the goalkeeper.

Having been heavily linked with a move away from the club, with the likes of Tottenham and Bayern Munich sniffing around, Arsenal jumped at the chance to sign Raya.

Arsenal conceded 10 more goals than Manchester City last season, so Arteta likely saw defence as a key area to improve. The big-money signings of Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber support this.

Perhaps Arteta saw Raya as a clear upgrade to Ramsdale, or maybe it was just a case of marginal gains, but either way, Raya is Arteta’s first-choice goalkeeper now.

How Has David Raya Changed The Way Arsenal Play?

Since Raya usurped Ramsdale, there have been subtle differences in the way the Gunners play, specifically when building out from the back.

Raya has actively looked to be involved in the team’s build-up, sometimes positioning himself almost as a left-sided centre-back. This effectively gives Arsenal an extra outfielder, giving the players the advantage of having more passing options to choose from. It also attracts pressure from the opposition, freeing up a spare man further up the pitch.

The best goalkeepers in the Premier League this season based on our current Squawka Score:

◎ 67% – Alisson Becker
◎ 65% – David Raya
◎ 62% – Ederson
◎ 60% – Guglielmo Vicario
◉ 60% – André Onana
◎ 59% – Emi Martínez

Ten Hag is right about Goals Prevented though. 😉 pic.twitter.com/RO8nzcmwyi

— Squawka (@Squawka) December 1, 2023

Raya vs Ramsdale: Passing And Distribution

Ramsdale is a good passer of the ball in his own right, but Raya is on a different level. He made 1,475 passes in the Premier League last season, the most of any goalkeeper and 541 more than Ramsdale.

This trend has continued at Arsenal, with Raya completing around 10 more passes than Ramsdale per 90. The Gunners are playing out from the back with more regularity now, with Raya going long less often than his English counterpart was.

This isn’t to say Arsenal never go long anymore. They do, but the balance is better now. Besides, Raya is uniquely accurate with his long kicks, which gives Arsenal the option to play over the opposition press. This advantage is heightened (no pun intended) with someone as aerially dominant as Kai Havertz up the pitch. Raya struck up a similar dynamic with Ivan Toney at Brentford, which could further explain the Arsenal transfer links.

Sure, we have seen some heart-in-mouth moments from Raya but that should be expected from a keeper who hasn’t been used to playing for a possession-based side at this level. At Brentford, he was primarily instructed to punt the ball long.

If a player is getting more touches, more time on the ball, and attempting more passes, naturally, they are going to accumulate more errors. It’s about mitigating the rate of these errors.

Ultimately, it seems Arteta is giving Raya more responsibility in possession than he’d given Ramsdale, perhaps because he just trusts the Spaniard more.

David Raya’s Goalkeeping Performance

In terms of actual goalkeeping, Raya has been about as solid as you’d expect. At the time of writing, Raya’s PSxG-GA (post-shot expected goals minus goals allowed) is +0.8, compared to Ramsdale’s -1.7.

PSxG-GA looks and sounds like jargon, but effectively it measures the difference between the expected goals conceded, based on the quality of the shots a goalkeeper faces, and the actual goals conceded.

In other words, a positive score = good goalkeeping; a negative score = bad goalkeeping.

Implicitly, this means that Raya is saving slightly more than you’d expect him to based on the chances he’s conceding, while Ramsdale is conceding more goals than he should be.

However, these are very small sample sizes (Raya 8 games, Ramsdale 1 game), so they shouldn’t be taken as concrete evidence. Last season’s numbers give us a better idea of their goalkeeping ability, where Raya’s PSxG-GA of +5.0 trumped Ramsdale’s -2.0.

This isn’t to say Raya has been faultless. His positioning for crossing situations has arguably cost the Gunners against Tottenham, Chelsea, and Newcastle. He seems to stand too far ahead of his front post when anticipating crosses, and it has led to goals in three games in which Arsenal dropped points.

Mikel Arteta Has Been Proven Right About Signing David Raya

Despite a bit of a rocky start, Raya has looked more comfortable and fluent overall as the games have gone by. Raya seems to provide more composure and a level of progression that Arsenal didn’t quite have with Ramsdale. Sure, we’ve seen a few nervy moments, but Ramsdale had his fair share too.

Raya has amassed an impressive seven clean sheets in his first 12 games for Arsenal. Although this should be accredited to the overall solidity of the team’s structure out of possession as well as the individual defensive qualities of Declan Rice and William Saliba, the goalkeeper deserves a ton of credit, as does Arteta.