Arsenal Goalkeeper David Raya

David Raya joined Arsenal on a permanent deal in the 2024 summer transfer window from Premier League rivals Brentford. The acquisition of Spanish stopper Raya now looks to be one of the shrewdest transfers completed in recent history as Mikel Arteta made a signing which many thought made little sense and was unnecessary at the time given Aaron Ramsdale’s stellar form. 

The Spanish goalkeeper joined for a fee of £27 million after he’d spent the previous season on loan at Arsenal replacing out-of-favour goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale who was coming off a pretty solid season between the posts but did not have the footballing skills wanted by Mikel Arteta.


There was controversy when Arteta decided to drop Ramsdale for Raya, but in the long-term, it was a move that worked wonders for the Emirates side.

David Raya is now without question one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, he won the Golden Glove in the 2023/24 season when Arsenal finished just two points off league champions Manchester City. The Spaniard has cemented himself as the number 1 goalkeeper in Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal first team squad for the 2024-25 season.

David Raya’s career before Arsenal

The 29-year-old began his career in Blackburn Rovers’ U18s team in 2012 before he was quickly promoted to the first team just one year later.

He spent one season out on loan at Southport, but apart from that remained at Blackburn for seven years making 108 appearances and keeping 32 clean sheets.

In 2019, he moved from Blackburn to Brentford for a fee of £2.8m where he established himself as a Premier League-calibre goalkeeper. So far in his career, Raya has made more appearances for Brentford than any other team.

He played 161 games for the Bees and managed to help them to promotion to the Premier League in 2021. Raya managed to keep 54 clean sheets for Brentford before he made the loan move to the Emirates Stadium in 2023.

The Spaniard has since made 50 appearances for Arsenal, keeping 25 clean sheets and winning the Premier League Golden Glove award in 2023/24.

In the recent top of the table clash on Sunday 22nd September 2024 at the Etihad, it ended in a 2-2 draw between Manchester City and Arsenal. David Raya turned in a remarkable performance as 10 man Arsenal went within seconds of holding out City for the entire second half after Leandro Trossard had been sent off near the end of the first half for two yellow cards.

Manchester City basically lay siege to the Gunners goal as Raya and the impressive Arsenal defensive unit almost held on to their 2-1 lead only for John Stones to score in the 8th minute of injury time. Right until the last minute it looked like Arteta’s men were headed for a vital 3 points only to be denied with the last action of the game.

Raya saved all but the very last of the 28 shots he faced in the second half. The Spaniard delivered a truly world class performance in the biggest game of the season so far for Pep Guardiola’s defending Premier League Champions Vs Arteta’s ever-improving, hungry Gunners outfit.

Raya has international experience

The 29-year-old keeper surprisingly isn’t the first-choice goalkeeper for the Spanish national team at the moment as Athletic Bilbao stopper Unai Simon is preferred.

However, Raya has made eight appearances for his national side, earning his first cap in March 2022 and was part of the squad for the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024 which his side won.

Three things you didn’t know about David Raya

Due to David Raya’s ‘sweeper keeper’ style of play, he has a lot of touches throughout a game and certainly over a season. In the 2020/21 season for Brentford, he attempted 300 more passes than any other keeper in the Championship.

The Spaniard was born in Barcelona in September 1995, but despite his birthplace, Raya’s footballing allegiance is elsewhere. The 29-year-old is a lifelong Real Madrid fan.

David Raya is an exceptional keeper in on-the-ball scenarios, furthermore, his delivery is also top-class. That is no coincidence. The Spaniard regularly practices his distribution by playing footgolf.

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