David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale are fighting for the gloves at Arsenal (Picture: Getty Images)
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was not impressed by David Raya’s goalkeeping at Luton on Tuesday night, but also didn’t think Aaron Ramsdale was up to much last time he played for the Gunners.
Raya was at fault for two of Luton’s goals in Arsenal’s dramatic 4-3 win at Kenilworth Road, woefully flapping at a cross for Elijah Adebayo’s goal, before failing to stop Ross Barkley’s effort which flashed straight past him.
The Spaniard has been far from convincing since signing on loan from Brentford over the summer, with plenty of fans calling for a recall of Ramsdale, who has lost his place to Raya.
The England international did get a run out against Brentford last month as Raya couldn’t play against his parent club, but while he kept a clean sheet in the 1-0 win, Henry remembers some blunders he made as well. Ramsdale was fortunate to get away with giving the ball away in his penalty area and bizarrely throwing the ball into the ground and seeing it bounce over an opponent’s head.
Discussing the goalkeeping situation on Amazon Prime after the win at Luton, the Gunners legend said of Raya: ‘Yeah the corner and the goal of Ross Barkley…
‘But I’m going to play the devil’s advocate, I watched the Brentford game. Ramsdale made two mistakes and didn’t get punished. So that was only his luck.
‘I don’t know if you remember There was a missed pass, the ball, Declan Rice save it on the line. Afterwards he wanted to throw the ball, it bounced above the head of the striker.’
Henry was critical of Raya’s attempt to save Barkley’s shot, pointing out that other goalkeepers would have kept it out with their feet rather than failing to do so with their hands.
‘So many times, go with the closest part of your body to the ball, which is your foot,’ said the Frenchman. ‘(David) De Gea, Nick Pope does it, Peter Schmeichel used to do it – by time you go down there, how are you going to save that? The ball is going to his feet and by the time he goes down here, if you stay, the ball is going to your feet easily.
‘But if you take it away, the ball will go under. It’s an awkward way of stopping it. If he stands his ground like Peter Schmeichel and De Gea used to do, they used to save that with their feet all day every day. It’s easy for me to talk because I was not a goalkeeper, but if you stay, he saves that.’
MORE : Mikel Arteta refuses to blame David Raya after blunders in Arsenal win at Luton
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Raya is failing to convince since joining from Brentford.
