Arsenal host Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday night.
The Gunners are looking to progress to their first final in the competition since 2006, when Barcelona broke Arsene Wenger’s heart in Paris.
PSG are also looking for their first triumph in Europe’s elite competition, and Luis Enrique will feel the French club are in the best position they’ve ever been in to secure the elusive piece of silverware.
David Raya will start in goal for Arsenal, in what will be the biggest game of his career so far, and the Spaniard has expressed confidence in his team’s ability to defeat the Ligue 1 Champions.
David Raya says he knows what Luis Enrique will do in PSG v Arsenal
PSG will look to press Arsenal high up the pitch, and this ploy will make Raya one of the Gunners’ most important players in the tie.
Mikel Arteta is likely to try and counteract this press by going long from the back, meaning the goalkeeper will be tasked with launching the ball towards his forwards throughout the game.
Arsenal’s ability to get into the final third and keep it there will be contingent on the accuracy of Raya’s kicking.
The shot-stopper himself has identified PSG’s press as Enrique’s primary tactical ploy, claiming that he knows that the French team will play in this way.
Speaking to Ben Foster for Amazon Prime Video, Raya said: “I think they run in a way of pressing all together. Obviously, I know Luis Enrique from the national team and I know more or less what he does with the players and how they press and all of this.
“It’s a bit different to how they pressed us there and how I see them pressing for example against Aston Villa, they were all at once.
“They don’t care what the result is, what minute it is, they will still play the same way, and they’re adapting to that, and I think that’s how they’re growing so much since the group stage to now.”
Raya being able to anticipate what moves his compatriot will make could give Arsenal a massive advantage over PSG, particularly with Arteta being significantly more tactically malleable than Enrique.
What David Raya said about Mikel Arteta and Luis Enrique comparisons
Managing the Spanish national team between 2018 and 2022, Enrique worked with Raya for an extended period of time, and the Arsenal number one has clearly picked up on what the coach attempts to do with his players.
Enrique was appointed PSG manager in the summer of 2023, leading the Parisians to a domestic treble and the Champions League semi-finals in his first campaign in charge at the Parc des Princes.
Already winning Ligue 1 and the Trophees des Champions, PSG face Reims in the Coupe de France final, and thus, the Spanish manager is looking to emulate his accomplishments from his first year, whilst adding European silverware on top.
Meanwhile, Arsenal are looking to win their first trophy under Arteta in five years, since the Gunners won the FA Cup in 2020.
Asked by Foster how Arteta and Enrique compare, Raya said: “They are very similar in terms of being very analytical in what we have to do to take advantage of the opponent.
“And things that both say in the meetings, it happens on the pitch.
“So having a manager like this, knowing that whatever he is telling you, whatever he is showing you on the meetings on the pitch it will happen in the game, it makes you even more focused and even more alive to what’s happening in training that is going to happen in the game and I think that is the way to do it.”
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