Bilbao : David Raya

Good morning from Bilbao.

This is my second blog of the day. To explain, I woke up, dozed back off, then dreamed I’d written a whole blog about Jurrien Timber, which was very pleasing because it looks like this is a quiet news day on the Arsenal front. It was like when you were a kid and you dream you’ve got out of bed to go to school, but you’re still under the covers and someone is shouting at your from downstairs to get up, get dressed and get out the door.

I forgot it gets brighter here a bit later. It’s just after 7.30 when I started writing this and the sun isn’t really up yet. It adds to that slight sense of discombobulation when you wake up in a hotel and you don’t quite know where you are for a few seconds. Obviously I’m here for the game tomorrow (as well as all the pintxos anyone can eat), and I’m really looking forward to that.

The first time I came to this city, I walked to the San Mames stadium just to have a look, and going to a game there has been on my wish list ever since. Arsenal arrive later today, Mikel Arteta will hold his pre-game press conference this evening, and while stuff about the team can wait until tomorrow’s preview, I am curious to see what way he mixes things up.

As we keep saying, he has all these players to keep happy, or as happy as possible, and there will be some itching to play tomorrow. With Man City on the horizon next weekend, we should see him shuffle his pack a bit, but as I said discussion of that can wait until tomorrow’s blog.

I didn’t get to see any of the football yesterday because I was travelling, but Liverpool are back on top after a late penalty gave them a win at Burnley, while City won the Manchester derby easily. I saw a headline in the Guardian which read: Manchester United seem to have accepted their mediocrity, but how long can it go on?

My first thought was: Forever, please? Anyway, we’ll talk more about the weekend’s Premier League games over on Patreon later in The 30, our regular round-up podcast.

Going back to Saturday, and the win over Nottingham Forest, I gave a brief mention to David Raya, but no more than that as others impressed more across the 90 minutes. I guess it’s worth pointing out he did keep a clean sheet on his 100th Arsenal appearance, which seems kind of fitting for a player who has been a cornerstone of this team since his arrival. He didn’t have a lot to do on the day, Forest barely threatened, but the one moment he was needed he pulled off a brilliant fingertip save to deny Chris Wood a goal.

I think there’s a risk/reward element with Raya that doesn’t always feel like it stacks up with what Arteta is perceived to want (total control). Sometimes, when he has the ball at his feet, I think he delays a bit too long, which seems at odds with his ability to get the game going again quickly. Which, in turn, can sometimes lead to stray pass here and there. I realise it’s what he’s asked to do, but I think he could do it earlier at times.

It’s a small complaint though, because we ask him to do a big job. Keeper and sweeper, essentially. He comes a long way out of his area and that’s hard work, and his level of involvement shows up in the stats. On Saturday he attempted 28 passes (89% accuracy) compared to just 10 for Viktor Gyokeres (70% accuracy). Which isn’t tacit criticism of our new striker, he has his own role that we’re trying to get used to, but it demonstrates how much Raya does at the other end. Inevitably, there will be some risk with that, players misplace passes all the time but when it’s a keeper it stands out.

What you’d say about Raya though is that he doesn’t get flustered. I think we’ve all seen players who, when they make a mistake, go into a dark place in their mind and it can impact their performance for the rest of the game. Not him, and when you ask your goalkeeper to play the way we do, you need that mental strength along with the technical ability.

100 games, 42 clean sheets. ‘Pretty good’, said Arteta. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Right. I’m gonna leave it there. Find coffee somewhere. Drink coffee. See what Bilbao has to offer. I might go see some modern art.

Till tomorrow.

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