David Raya’s Heroics Secure Arsenal’s Draw at Atalanta:-
David Raya pulled off an incredible double save to give Arsenal a nil nil draw away at Atlanta to continue their great start to the season David Ryan has been one of the best goalkeepers in Europe to start this season .
Going to look at why he is just so good for Arsenal so let’s get into it now while there was not a lot to talk about with the Atlanta game overall as it was a very boring outfit David Ry has been obviously in the news after his incredible double save adding to his tally of incredible saves this season last season David Ray was heavily criticized for replacing Aaron ramale but I don’t think anyone can argue of it right now he has been absolutely outstanding for Arsenal this season and in my opinion one of their best players if not their best player.
David Raya’s Impact Since Joining Arsenal:-
So far now before we obviously get into the brilliant saves let’s talk about why David Raya is so good as well outside of all them things happening now the first one is definitely obviously the reason why he’s in the team the first place is his cross has stopped he is one of the best goalkeepers .
Exceptional Cross-Stopping Ability:-
In the world at stopping crosses and catching them to make sure there’s no danger despite only being 6′ tall he sits at 12.7% of crosses are stopped by him in the top 1% of goalkeepers in Europe and against Tottenham his ability to be able to catch the ball from any angle where the cross comes in makes it mean that the team against Arsenal have to put a perfect cross so he doesn’t come out and get the ball another reason why he’s been so effective for Arsenal is the fact he has been helping them tactically against Tottenham .
Tactical Contributions to Arsenal’s Play:-
When things like Kimber moved up Ry actually acted in the for of defense and helped pass the ball around and With His Brilliant individual passing ability it doesn’t deteriorate the side from anything back there this has also helped arsal be very versatile in many ways while some games it is better to pass it closer with teams allowing Arsenal to have the ball recently against Tottenham and Atlanta it’s been quite clear that man-to-man marking and pressent Arsenal has been the way to go for these teams this has meant Arsenal have had to use David R’s brilliant .
Brilliant Saves: The Heart of Raya’s Game:-
Long kick ability and while overall it’s going to be quite hard to be accurate from these just because of positions and if Arsenal aren’t really committed to doing it then sometimes you just have to boot the ball out he has done 21 long balls in the last two games in both of them showing that he has that ability to pass out long and get Arsenal on the break and overall his passes in the last few games has been around 60% which is a very high level for a goalkeeper and shows he is getting on the ball quite a lot with over 30 passes .
The Atalanta Double Save: A Season-Defining Moment:-
Now the thing is with Raya arguably he was doing all this great things on the ball for the team last year and by the end of the year was definitely the best goalkeeper for the team that made sense now this season the reason why he’s been getting even more recognition is definitely because of his brilliant saves I think arguably he’s done three or four saves which could be up there for Save of the Season already and is consistently doing it over and over again now despite only being 6′ tall which is small for a goalkeeper David Raya has a brilliant ability to turn while on the floor and get up quicker .
I do think he’s one of the best goalkeepers in Europe at being so quick to get up from a rebound now we’ve seen the benefits of this in the past the save against Aston Villa a few weeks ago was absolutely incredible and while you can always look OE Watkins who should have put it away the ability of David R to be able to turn and get up off of the floor when the ball went above him off the bar and dive to make that save is incredible in every metrick it’s.
Composure and Leadership in Tough Moments:-
So composed back there that you never actually feel like it’s a problem for him and he’s always going to get there however the save against Atlanta is arguably even better and just proves that David Raya is the most informed goalkeeper in Europe right now cuz we can talk about all the distribution and all the brilliant things that he brings to the team but ultimately the main thing that people will look at is the saving ability from a goalkeeper that they have so let’s break down that save against Atlanta now David ryers has a lot of composure in their moments where it doesn’t really get to him .
We saw that in the Porto away game last year when he did brilliant saves to win them that penalty shootout now in this game it’s a very nerve-wracking time is in the second half and Arsenal aren’t really attacking they’re kind of up against the wall and the defense is having to be relied on yet again this means you need big leaders to step up and party gives away a stupid penalty where he gets outpaced on the left side and ends up not looking where the ball is to give it away now this is nothing David Ry can do and all he can do is make amends from the penalty for his own teammates .
Now when RI steps up it is an originally a poor penalty David Raya said in the Press after that he got lucky where he guessed the right way way here which is definitely right between goalkeepers and penalties you can definitely guess the right way and the wrong way but he can identify from where RI is going to run that he’s probably going to kick it that side which is why he dived there now the first penalty is not great it is an awful penalty he just goes for power and David Raya is going to get it if it isn’t in the corner which he does save it easily .
Statistically Outstanding Season:-
Now because of the power of the shot by Ru it actually allows the ball to go up in the air off of Rya he’s not really looking at his technique in this moment from a penalty he’s more just thinking let’s get a hand on the ball so we can save it this unfortunately leaves it to go right back up for Ru who’s literally got an open goal I mean you can see by this shot here where he can head it anywhere in the goal and it’s probably going to go in and I do think his positioning and placement of the shot that he does is quite poor however it is hard in a situation where he knows.
He has to get something on the ball when it’s coming towards him in that moment and although the position of the header that Ru does Is Not Great it isn’t actually a bad header he heads it down he heads it proper and it is going to go in as a very good shot I think with a lot of power on it now the ability that David Ryan has on the floor here is even better than the one against Aston Villa the spin that he does on the floor quickly and the agility to get up is incredible where he gets up in a brilliant way and is able to jump back in between the middle of the goal and save it off the line on the bounce as well to make it even harder.
And I would say that these saves are happening these better performances are happening with Ry with comfortability but it doesn’t feel like that bothers him he is such a composed player back there which has definitely helped Arsenal in many ways especially these tough away games where he doesn’t seem like things really bother him he seems very hypocritical of himself by his interviews but still wants to get better all the time and although Arsenal didn’t play well in this game and I still think they struggled in many ways you can definitely see that David Riot has earned his place within the squad and is one of the key players within the team he is one of the big reasons why the defense has been so good this year and his involvement in the games is clear in the last two games .
He’s had over 40 touches in both of them and he’s making high amounts of recoveries High claims throws punches and he’s just got a great positional awareness as well as also having a brilliant save percentage as well this season statistically he should have conceded around 3.65 goals and he’s only conceded one so he’s already positive by 2.65 on his overall XG prevented which is a brilliant stat to have only five games in of course that was very inflated by this Atlanta game obviously saving the penalty and the rebound but these are what these incredible saves do and not only that David Raya is becoming a leader people .
Becoming Arsenal’s Key Defensive Asset:-
Clearly trust him to make the right decision and he’s almost becoming one of the most vital components of this Arsenal team if they are going to play this defensive style in tough away games and his saves are meaning so much to Arsenal now he got them and helped them win against Aston Villa I think we give a lot of credit for him for that game.
I think he was excellent against Tottenham as well as other players but I also think tonight he was really the main man and probably the man the match for that incredible double penalty save that is one of the saves That You Don’t See very often once in a lifetime but David Ry has been doing it so much this year and he is definitely the most informed goalkeeper in Europe right now where it does look like s ramale was clearly the right decision overall and in retrospect seems like a brilliant deal for Arsenal to have at the club.