25% of the goals Arsenal have conceded in the Premier League this season (7/28) have resulted from individual errors; an unrivalled rate in Europe’s top five leagues.
It’s little wonder Mikel Arteta has an oven-ready line – “mistakes are part of football – for whenever his players drop a clanger.
Jorginho, Bukayo Saka, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Aaron Ramsdale have each been responsible for our opponents scoring this season while David Raya took his tally of individual errors for the campaign to three during yesterday’s north London derby.
Midway through the second half at White Hart Lane, Arsenal cruising 3-0 at the time, the Spaniard attempted a dinked pass into midfield, got the weight of it all wrong and was left helpless as Cristian Romero rolled the ball into an empty net.
The incident completely changed the game’s momentum and might have been even more costly had Raya not recovered quickly. As it turned out, he was inspired in the closing stages, using his massive hands to catch a series of Sp*rs crosses as the Gunners survived a late scare to secure a 3-2 win.
Afterwards, he reflected: “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.”
Having lived through costly collapses last season, the final minutes were nerve-shredding for Arsenal supporters. Indeed, when Declan Rice kicked through Ben Davies and VAR rightly awarded a penalty that Son Heung-Min converted with three minutes left, it felt like the ultimate fan meltdown was on the cards.
“It’s 3-2 and the last few minutes was a little bit more shaky for the people outside,” noted Raya. No sh*t, mate.
“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. We showed great character collectively.”
He added: “I like challenges and I don’t feel under pressure. I feel like that when things are pressure, it’s an opportunity to show what you’re capable of.”
After Manchester City eased past Nottingham Forest 2-0, Arsenal know their fate remains out of their hands. All the same Raya insists that Arsenal just need to focus on themselves when they face Bournemouth, Manchester United and Everton in the final three games.
“We cannot focus on other teams, because if you do that you lose your focus on yourself and you don’t start playing the same way.
“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.”
With that in mind, we suspect the boss will be reminding his players that lapses in concentration could still prove costly as we head into May.
We love Ramsdale, that shouldn’t mean that we can’t give some extra love to Raya as well.
Also what a ridiculous stat about “25% of the goals Arsenal have conceded in the Premier League this season (7/28) have resulted from individual errors; an unrivalled rate in Europe’s top five leagues.” I mean, we have the same number as Liverpool. Our defense is exceptional. We still play footie and commit errors leading to goals – not really at a rate higher than most teams, but when you concede less they become a bigger fraction of the total. This is just dumb over analysis. Why aren’t people talking more about the fact that we have conceded 4 less goals… Read more »
Spot on. % is high because total is low. It seems this way the only way teams can score is if we make an error. Otherwise we are so secure.
Exactly. So let’s cut down those errors – it’s virtually the only real weakness in this current side.
I think the point is that while we concede less, the ‘brain-farts’ seem to occur when we can least afford them. Which is why, given our exemplary stats, we are nonetheless still at Citeh’s mercy in terms of our title hopes, when we should be 4-6 pts clear. I for one do not think we should be dismissing this stat – it’s been a concern for some time under Mik. And it’s probably the only real weakness in this current side… just imagine if we could only halve those errors… 4 pts? 6? 9 even? It’s a thing – whether… Read more »
Raya has got to go. Sorry, but he’s the weakest link in this team right now. He probably cost us a place in the Champions League semi-final, and he nearly cost us two points yesterday. Surely we can do better than him. I keep hearing that Arteta is this ruthless manager: if he is then he should be on the lookout for a significant upgrade in this position for next season. As we’ve seen this season, the margins are wafer-thin: but a top-quality goalkeeper could give us between 6 to 8 extra points in a season. We need to find… Read more »
We still won and he has made no more mistakes than any other member of the team. Plus even with team errors we still have the lowest number of conceded goals in the league this season, and the highest scoring. It would be great to iron out a few more errors but even with them that is amazing stats!
Yeah, it’s funny I don’t see anyone blaming Saka for committing an individual error that directly cost us a goal. Why? Because he’s not a defender or goalkeeper. So what?? It’s part of his job too, just like it is a defender’s. “He contributes goals and assists” sure mate, just like a goalkeeper distributes and claims crosses and helps us keep the ball. Is Raya perfect? Nope. Neither is Saka, nor Odegaard (ok fine Odegaard might be). But they’re all pretty fucking good and have won us a ton of games. Some fans will never be happy, first it was… Read more »
With respect, I don’t believe that’s entirely the point Bill. Goalkeeping errors, by their very nature, are more harshly punished than any other.
My question is simple: Jennings, Seaman, Lehman… Raya – does the last name sit comfortably in that group?
PL and CL winners – that requires a world-class keeper… a dominating, intimidating presence in the 6-yard box. Raya is a very good keeper, but I’m not sure he is that ‘presence’ we need.
I disagree. Look at the other keepers at the top teams. They all make mistakes. It’s part of the job. Our defence has been excellent this season, so Raya deserves credit.
Not the biggest Raya fan but I don’t quite agree with you, Fats. Also, who’s this mystery keeper you’re on?
That’s some serious scapegoating to blame Raya on the CL exit…
At 1-0 against Bayern he caused the chaos that led to the German team’s equaliser. Then he should have done better with the Kane penalty: he made it easy for the ex-Spud by going down too early.
In tight games a top goalkeeper can make all the difference.
🤣… Nice little piece of inventive fiction there.
Some fans just forgets way too quickly. I remembered the Porto game was really tight too, and thanks for Raya.. He saved our asx. So now you can enjoy blaming him for our Cl exit… that’s really harsh…
Fans just forget way too quickly. The Porto game was really tight too, and thanks for Raya we went through. So now you can enjoy blaming him for our exit in CL. That’s just way too harsh and unfair.
I’m definitely not a Raya fan but blaming him for letting in a penalty after the Porto round (the one game he DEFINITELY won us this season)?……nah
Specifically after he was the one who was kept us in there against Porto. Some fans just forget too quickly.
And who do we replace him with?
Fatgooner!! 😉
We need an Almunia. 😁
Seriously, just keep Raya and stop changing keepers all the time.
The CL mixup is the real reason we were knocked out. I can forgive the other mistakes as we eventually won those games.
Yes, David Raya, the keeper who saved two shots in the penalty shootout of the round-of-16, is the man we should blame for our quarter-final exit.
Good Lord.
Guess what mate. He has given us 6-8 more points this season. You’re welcome.
Bring back Martinez if you really wanted a “ball at his feet” GK and at the same time is an excellent shot stopper, positioning, awareness.
The same Martinez who kicks it into touch 3 times a match. The same one who is an average shot stopper, average positioning and average awareness? The guy who couldn’t beat out Ospina, a 40 year old Cech and demanded he be ahead of Leno because he couldn’t beat him in a competition?
We don’t need that bellend anywhere near this team.
Banks, Casillas, Barthez, Neuer, Schmeichel, Kahn, Cech, Buffon, Seaman, Shilton and Yashin had two things in common. 1) they were all goalkeepers. 2) they all made mistakes.
(Cough!! Cough!!)
Forgive me, please!! I nearly choked on my donut!!!
Are you SERIOUSLY comparing DAVID RAYA with those legends?
That’s like comparing Nicklas Bendtner to Pele!
No. I’m saying even the very best make the occasional mistake. Raya is on course for the golden glove this season having played 6 games fewer than most others. Who (good enough, affordable, available and willing to come) do you think Arsenal should go out and buy instead?
I was a little surprised to see that Raya has the best cross claiming % of the top 5 European leagues. His handling is mostly excellent, and his distribution is mostly great too. Mistakes will happen in that regard no matter who we have. I do feel he is slightly weak when it comes to making big saves/reaction stops. Maybe a taller keeper saves a few long range efforts that he doesn’t but those shots are marginal anyway. The defence in front of him is doing good work mostly preventing shots, and, coming back round to the first point, if… Read more »
He’s better than Barthez!
Someone swiped your phone and inserted Fabien Barthez into your list while you weren’t looking!
And where is Pat Jennings, I wonder… the gentle giant who was possibly the most under-rated keeper ever!
You ommitted the single most NB characteristic: they all had huge presence. They filled their 6-yard boxes… they faced down opponents and intimidated strikers.
Raya is technically very good – I’m just not sure he has the ‘fuck-you’ presence that the great goalies all have (whether through ice-cool calm, or crazy-genius antics)
He is the weakest link (not so much for the errors, more the lack of top quality presence), but of a very good team. And he comes off v well in this piece. And anyway we all know we are simply not going to go into the market for a keeper. I suggest accepting this and praying that an irrepressible Neuer-like creature emerges from Hale End 🙂
Every goalie has a bad moment, he stood up strong afterwards which is what counts!
i liked the way he expressed his excitement about the challenge of defending like we did at the end of the match. in truth most of his career he must have been in that situation for the vast majority of the match, you know. it must be new and weird for him to be forced to make only one or two saves every match and the concentration that requires. sadly for him, bottom line is it was another match in which every shot on target was a goal. again.
Andrew, although obviously we should work to reduce individual errors, I don’t think that 25 percent ratio explains much in isolation. Is the raw number (7) high or low compared to other teams? If it’s low, it just means that Arsenal are very difficult to score against for any reason. If it’s more or less average for strong *attacking* teams, as we are, then it just means that’s how football works. It’s only if the raw number is high–or exceptionally high–that we should be concerned.
Exactly. I suspect only about 3% of Man United’s goals conceded come from individual errors, because they concede 4 every single game just by being collectively shit.
This article from earlier this month provides more context to the stat – https://theanalyst.com/eu/2024/04/arsenal-errors-premier-league-title-liverpool-man-city/ I’m not saying 7 is a bad number. It’s not the worst in the PL this season. Brighton have made 10 errors and three sides Sheffield United (9), Brentford and Burnley (8) have more. However, I think Arteta will be frustrated that his side is so good defensively but too often undermines its efforts with brain-freeze moments. I get that we play a high-risk type of football playing out from the back but it’s still a bit of an anomaly. City have 3 individual errors to… Read more »
Yes, I think for Arsenal, that 25% and the highest rate in Europe explains a lot. It confirms that a disproportionate amount of goals we concede are from Individual errors and that given how good we are defensively, if we can reduce those errors we will even be stronger still.
But perhaps if we had the same as City it would be a result of less high risk football, which could result in us scoring 3 goals less this season like they have, and also could result in conceding other non-error goals instead because we’d be kicking the ball long and thereby giving up possession and control of the game, Those errors come with our style of play which tries to attract the press so that space opens up in the middle and behind for us to attack, you can’t necessarily have your cake and eat it too by cutting… Read more »
Exactly! 💯
I think that’s a stretch. I can’t recall these seven off the top of my head, but the few I can recall, including this one, had nothing to do with style of play. Simply horrible mistakes when under no genuine threat. I think the more legitimate rebuttal to the significance of the statistic cited is that many of the seven goals came from low percentage chances, per XG. Of course, how much credence you lend to this then reflects your faith in the validity of XG as a stat (I find it useful to some extent, but still significantly flawed,… Read more »
Do they count Gabriel getting pushed in the back by joelinton as an individual error? I mean he shouldn’t have standing in the way of a goal PMGOL really needed to be scored.
And there’s the rub – Citeh have the least. Simply put, it’s how you become champions. So – if that is truly where we’re aiming – there is simply no room for brain-farts! I’ve been taken to task on here for banging on about it but, whether you like it or not, the margins at the levels to which we aspire (PL and CL winners) are wafer-thin so we either (a) acknowledge the problem and (b) sort it out pronto; or – continue to trip ourselves up when it really counts and settle for runners up. Winners think like winners.… Read more »
Bad mistake by Raya yet caught every cross afterwards, showed in my point of view he’s a lot better than some think, his stats on clean sheets are the best in the league, Ederson & Alisson have made mistakes this season yet don’t get the same scrutiny coz he replaced the fans favourite, far better than Onanna, Vicario, and the chelsea keepers I have forgotten, my only regret on keepers is we let Martinez go to soon.
Totally agree on Martinez, but a tough guy to have around the dressing room apparently.
I would prefer Onana I think….used to think Vicario but then a Spurs fan mate started telling me about how crap he is at crosses so I withdraw an early comment I made yesterday!
A bit of a digression, yesterday’s officiating was the best I had ever seen on Michael Oliver.
*of
We have 3 games of the season to go and Raya’s mistake is all you want to dwell on at this stage of the season?!
Astonishing.
Best blog in football
He just needs to eliminate the blunders, stay in his own half and have more presence than a shadow at corners and he’ll be fine.
Not sure that was penalty, Rice tried to hoof it, Davies came on the blindside, got a kick up the arse, for knocking the ball away!
What is he supposed to do, not clear it? Or take his eye off the ball as it’s dropping? Correct call by the letter of the law but seems wrong to give a goal to the opposition for that.
Us fans understand goalkeepers least of all. The position is completely overlooked until a mistake has been made, and then it suddenly gets way too much attention, ignoring the 99.9% of the rest of the game or season that came before.
At the beginning of this season, when we were all settling into those first few games and the team structure, I wrote on here about the ‘brain-farts’ that were, worringly, becoming a bit of ‘a thing’. A number on here accused me of being an ‘agony aunt’, a faithless fan, etc… however – the fact that we have the highest individual goal-concession of any team in Europe, kinda makes the point, don’t it? I wonder if it’s a function of having both a very young team and a very young manager? Or is that certain players are simply prone to… Read more »