David Raya is the missing piece in Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal’s quest to win a first Premier League title in 20 years, reckons Theo Walcott.
The Spanish shot-stopper, who won the Premier League’s Golden Glove last season, has started all six games for Arsenal domestically and in the Champions League this term, conceding just three goals in all competitions. The 29-year-old has won a man-of-the-match award in the Gunners’ last three fixtures against Tottenham, Atalanta, and Manchester City.
And his double saves against Villa and penalty heroics at Atalanta were described by manager Mikel Arteta as among the best he has ever seen. Walcott, who spent more than 10 years at Arsenal, is convinced, after a nervy start to life at the Emirates, Raya is now a key component in the Gunners’ quest to dethrone serial winners Manchester City.
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“He’s now got a home,” said former Arsenal man Walcott, speaking at a KickX community event on Monday in Addlestone. “As a player, it is important when you find your home and have a good environment around you and good positive people around you, it feeds into you, and you feel like you can’t do anything wrong.
“Hopefully, it continues like this. When you see keepers make a mistake, you are like, ‘Ugh’, because if a striker makes that mistake, people do not say anything. A mistake by a goalkeeper is obviously magnified.
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“He’s got a great defence around him as well, but he commands that defence, and he expects standards. Again, that is fed through Mikel and the trust he’s been putting in him now as well.
“I think it’s really fascinating to see. He’s really matured as well, he seems a lot calmer, and I think when you have a calm keeper, it just settles everyone in the whole team.
“He’s in a good space right now and I think he’s one of the best in the business now in the world. That’s for sure.”
Raya will be crucial if Arteta is to finally pip his managerial mentor Pep Guardiola to Premier League glory after two seasons of agonising second-place finishes.
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Arsenal were on the verge of landing the first hammer blow of the title race on Sunday at Manchester City, entering stoppage time a man down but with a slender 2-1 lead at the Etihad thanks to first-half goals from Riccardo Calafiori and defender Gabriel.
But as the clock ticked over into the 98th minute, John Stones denied the Gunners a famous win to snatch a point for the defending champions.
While he would have admittedly taken a point at City before a ball was kicked, Walcott has stressed the importance of grinding out wins when fighting for a title.
“I felt City were always going to score at some point, but again, you would have taken that at the start of the season,” Walcott added, with the former Arsenal, Southampton and Everton forward having become an investor and official ambassador of KickX – the world’s first indoor hybrid football arena.
“It is just the games against the lesser teams, you can’t afford to drop points because Man City will not do that,” he added.
(Image: Getty Images)
“Arsenal took four points off them last year, but it is the games when they lost to West Ham and Fulham around Christmas time and then Villa. I know Villa are a good team, but you are expecting Arsenal to win these games, particularly at home.
“It is one of those where when you look at the overall season, no one will remember how teams have played in each individual game, they just look at results. It is a sort of results business now.
“You see the way that Arsenal were slowing down the game because they wanted to really dampen Man City’s flow. I understand the club doing that because at times you need to be able to frustrate the other team, you have got to play the game.
“The referees will add the time on, it is what it is, but it is so important for us to just understand it’s all about results.
“Performances are great, of course, but if you play well and you don’t get results, that’s when managers will be under pressure.”
KickX arena opened in July 2023 and offers seven hybrid football formats including the popular Padbol, a mix of football, squash, and tennis and Teqball, a blend of football and table tennis. For more information please visit www.kickxfootball.com