David Raya is the toast of every Arsenal fan after his penalty shootout heroics against Porto on Tuesday night sealed the Gunners place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The Spaniard's two saves during the shootout marked a defining moment in Raya's Arsenal career, which started under shaky circumstances due to the Emirates' faithful's adoration of previous No. 1 Aaron Ramsdale. The decision from manager Mikel Arteta to bring in Raya from Brentford on loan and replace Ramsdale was one that sparked widespread debate.
Fans and pundits alike were quick to ridicule the call after Raya made some notable errors in away games against Chelsea and Luton, but the turn of the year has seen the Spain international establish himself as a more calming presence between the sticks for Arsenal.
The Gunners have shipped just four league goals this year, one of which came from a Ramsdale mistake against Brentford last Saturday. Raya's slowly managed to turn the tide on his Arsenal career, but his two penalty saves against Porto is the first time he's come in for serious praise from his own fans.
The fact that Raya's Man of the Match display came just days after one of Ramsdale's biggest blunders in an Arsenal shirt has not evaded detection from fans. Nor has some of Raya's post-match comments, given how contrasting they are to one memorabl Ramsdale interview.
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Speaking to CBS Sports after the Gunners got the better of Porto, the Brentford loanee explained: "You get drained after games as a goalkeeper.
"Maybe not leg-wise, but mentally you have to be so focused from the first minute until the last minute, you cannot switch of for one second. You know, sometimes you see players that can switch off for a few minutes because they are not involved, but goalkeepers you never know when you are going to be involved so you have to switch on."
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David Raya embracing Aaron Ramsdale after Arsenal's penalty shootout triumph (Twitter/footballontnt)Raya's sentiment is incredibly contrasting to the one shared by Ramsdale last season while in conversation with Ian Wright. The England international discussed how difficult he finds concentrating for the full 90 minutes.
"If you ask me to concentrate on a game of football for 90 minutes, I'm finished, I can't do it," Ramsdale conceded. "So that's why I get involved with the fans, sing along with the songs.
"Someone's giving me abuse, I'll turn around and give it back, I've had my two or three minutes of sort of madness in my head - straight back to the football. I've got 10/15 minutes of pure concentration again."
On social media, one Gunners fan addressed the comments from both and wrote: "One guy saying he gets distracted for 2-3 mins to help himself and the other says he gets mentally drained from being so locked in."
Another added: "Raya has fully announced himself now." Given both league fixtures against Brentford have now passed, there's every chance Ramsdale has played his final game for Arsenal this season and perhaps for good.
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