Arsenal fell 2-1 to RC Lens, and according to some Gooners, David Raya may have let us down in that game. The Spaniard’s goalkeeping wasn’t up to par, with a misplaced long pass to the right wing allowing Lens to break forward for the equaliser, with Elye Wahi setting up Adrian Thomasson to score a goal that some believe Raya could have saved. If Lens hadn’t equalised in the 24th minute, things might have turned out differently.
ESPN pundit Craig Burley believes Aaron Ramsdale would have done a better job of saving the goals against Lens, particularly their equaliser. Burley is optimistic that the Englishman, who has been left out of the last few games, will soon get his chance to redeem himself, as he raved about how much better a goalie he is.
After Lens equalised, Burley commented on ESPN, “When David Raya’s perceived to be better with his feet than Ramsdale — who I don’t think’s terrible with his feet — but looking at that goal there, that was a great goal from Lens perspective, but Raya doesn’t have the stature of Ramsdale.
“Ramsdale’s much bigger, taller, more wingspan. There’s an argument to say he might have saved something like that. I saw him make some absolutely tremendous saves last year, Ramsdale, tip-of-the-finger stuff.
“Whilst they did not lose to Lens because of David Raya alone, I go back to this point, this was a very big and harsh decision on somebody who was terrific for the most part for Arsenal last year. So watch this space.”
Ramsdale, who has been a fantastic goalkeeper for us since his arrival, hasn’t had the best of times at the club in recent weeks.
Unfortunately, he has only appeared in one of our last six games. Mikel Arteta would claim that he is making the best decision for the team, but what went wrong, because he, after Raya joined, talked about how he wants healthy competition in his goalkeeping department?
If he couldn’t rotate them week in and week out, the best competition would have been using one in the league and the other in the Champions League. Raya is a fine goalie; we can’t argue with that, but Ramsdale isn’t bad either. Last season, the 24-year-old’s goalkeeping kept us in contention for the Premier League title, and he also put us back into the Champions League.
I’m not sure why Arteta is afraid to use him. Raya has had his chances, and I believe Ramsdale should have his as well after Raya’s shakey performance last night.
Don’t you?
Darren N
——————————————
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
