Arsenal’s £27m summer transfer verdict asked new questions after latest title blow avoided

David Raya was at the centre of the North London Derby as he brought something of a defibrillator to the clash for all the wrong reasons. He brought both Tottenham and their home crowd back to life with his mistake to gift Cristian Romero a free shot at his goal which he took like a seasoned striker to give him the credit he deserved.

The Spaniard is, for now at least, on loan from Brentford and for all intents and purposes, it is thought that the deal will be made permanent in the summer. That is certainly what Thomas Frank believes and he has already publicly said as much.

"I think it would be a surprise if he didn’t [sign for Arsenal permanently],” Frank said in November of last year ahead of the clash with Arsenal which they would lose to a late Kai Havertz header, Aaron Ramsdale keeping a clean sheet. “He’s gone there and is playing more or less every minute. That’s what I expect. If not, then we have another good keeper back [at the club]."

Yet the mistake against Tottenham had many supporters again asking the question whether it is the right choice to keep hold of him instead of looking for a better option. Raya has looked confident whilst errors have occurred against several teams already this season, thankfully not many have proven costly.

He revealed after the game that Mikel Arteta had seemingly already forgiven him. The Spaniard revealed what his compatriot and manager said to him at full-time.

“Mistakes are part of football and you learn from them,” Raya revealed. “What he said was just about the character that I showed after the mistake.

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“I thought I was mentally very strong and I just forgot about the mistake, I just carried on playing my game and tried to help the team as much as possible. I think I showed that in the last 20 minutes.”

Based on this it seems highly unlikely that the error has indeed affected any view the club have of making the deal permanent in the summer. After the initial £3million loan fee, the club are expected to pay an additional £27million to make the move permanent and considering the fees paid in recent years for the likes of Kepa Arrizabalaga, Alisson and Andre Onana this looks like an incredibly good bit of business.

There are few keepers that Arsenal would find in the market, if any, better than Raya. Perhaps the likes of Diogo Costa from Porto who looked good in the UEFA Champions League tie between the pair but there is very few guarantees when it comes to this position and Raya will be expected only to improve as he settles more into his new club.