‘Mistakes are part of football’: David Raya pledges to learn from derby error

It was the kind of mistake, so aberrant and out of keeping with everything before it, that can derail an entire season’s work. David Raya’s blunder at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was hardly on the scale of a Steven Gerrard slip but, as Spurs took grateful receipt of the gift and threw everything into a late barrage on the Arsenal goal, there was the short-lived sense that one simple miscue could prove decisive.

Would Raya have attempted a sand-wedged pass to Thomas Partey if Arsenal had not been three goals up? Perhaps not. Would Cristian Romero, a centre-back, have been the man to intercept and score if Spurs had not needed a performative show of buccaneering to rouse them? That seems especially unlikely. The afternoon’s tone transformed but what ultimately mattered for Mikel Arteta’s side was that Raya rediscovered his composure and, in those dying moments, dominated his box to see them home.

“The last few minutes were a little bit more shaky for the people outside, but for us that’s our job and I really, really enjoyed that challenge to keep the ball out of the net and trying to help the team as much as possible on crosses,” the goalkeeper said. To some extent Raya had made work for himself, although Declan Rice’s out-of-character kick at Ben Davies had hardly helped. But there are few keepers better at claiming high balls in the Premier League and, as Tottenham offered up a stream of them, the Spaniard plucked everything out of the north London sky.

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“Mistakes are part of football and you learn from them,” he said. “I shouldn’t have played that ball, I should have gone a little bit longer. I wanted to control the game a little bit more, but it didn’t happen. It showed how good they are at pressing and the plan was different.”

It was certainly an impressive response and Arteta, who embraced Raya after full time, was visibly appreciative. “What he said was just about the character that I showed after the mistake,” Raya continued. “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.”

Raya’s early Arsenal appearances were pockmarked with uncertainty, perhaps not helped by a skittishness among an Emirates crowd who had fallen in love with the charisma of Aaron Ramsdale. But he has become part of the furniture, a calm and imposing presence who has justified Arteta’s long-term pursuit, and it is far from inconceivable that he will go down as their first title-winning No 1 in two decades. Victories over Bournemouth, Manchester United and Everton would require a further demonstration of perfection from Manchester City. The tests keep coming and, by and large, Arsenal keep ticking them off.

“I like challenges and I don’t feel under pressure,” said Raya, who has acclimatised well to a level of attention far more intense than that experienced in stints at Blackburn and Brentford. “I feel that when things are pressured, it’s an opportunity to show what you are capable of. I am really, really enjoying this challenge.”

Next weekend Arsenal get to pile the pressure on City once again: they host the in-form Cherries on Saturday lunchtime and the serial champions will know what is required in an early-evening kick-off against Wolves. It is hard to see either contender slipping up at this point but Raya recites the mantra that he and his teammates cannot afford to be distracted by events elsewhere.

“We cannot focus on other teams, because you lose your focus on yourself and you don’t start playing the same way,” he said. “You have to focus on yourself and the team, on what you can control. If you focus on things that you cannot control, things are not going to go well.”

There is the sense, in dispassionate onlookers if not among Arsenal’s evidently hyper-focused squad, that Old Trafford may be the venue that makes or breaks them on 12 May. It remains a hunting ground where they find a way to lose all too often, a win in November 2020 their only success in the league since 2006. Seven wins and a draw from their past eight away games is a fine record to take on the road, though, and emerging unscathed from trips to Anfield, the Etihad and Tottenham suggests past experiences are no longer allowed to bleed into the present.

“It’s a massive confidence boost, especially the games that we won away from home,” Raya said of the latest hurdle cleared. “That shows the character of the team. You have to win away games to be able to push for the title.” Perhaps, as Raya showed on Sunday, you need to ride your luck at times too.