David Raya has been one of the best signings of the Mikel Arteta era and Jamie Carragher believes he has outshone Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Raya has been outstanding all season, leading the league in clean-sheets once again and proving to be a key pillar for the Gunners.
At the weekend, Raya made a huge save at 0-0- to keep Arsenal level against Everton and according to Jamie Carragher, the Spaniard’s actions might have won Arsenal the league.
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Jamie Carragher praises David Raya’s impact at Arsenal
David Raya has been excellent all season and it was little surprise to see him come up trumps this weekend.
Now, according to Carragher, Raya has cemented himself as the top goalkeeper in the league ahead of City ace Donnarumma.
“I think most of us fancied Donnarumma didn’t we? Yes. With his experience and being there before but there’s no doubt that Donnarumma blinked first shall we say, he made an error. It was poor from the goalkeeper and misjudges it and that was the goal to get West Ham to 1-1 and Man City couldn’t get the winning goal,” Carragher commented on Sky Sports.
“I mean, listen. We think Arsenal will win the league and he’s been one of the biggest reasons why, not just this season but the signing and changing him for Ramsdale.
“But that save, at 0-0, that’s the vital part. To get the leg out, absolutely brilliant goalkeeping and that kept it level until we know what happened.”
David Raya’s stats since signing for Arsenal
There were some question marks when Arsenal spent £27m to sign Raya and more or less immediately promoted him ahead of Aaron Ramsdale. Since then, Raya has been number one, with Ramsdale having moved on.
However, there can be no doubting Mikel Arteta got it spot on.
Since his arrival, Raya has played 118 times and astonishingly, has kept 52 clean-sheets, with just 84 goals conceded along the way in all competitions.
Crucially, Raya also makes big saves at important times, as his average of 2.74 saves a game shows.
Raya also has the highest save percentage in the league this season at 78.4% per shots faced, while his distribution stats are right up there too, over 80% in terms of keeping possession.
Put simply, David Raya has been a revelation and when all is said and done, he’ll go down as one of the best signings of the modern era.
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