Goalkeeper David Raya was the Arsenal player chosen to face the media ahead of tonight’s Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon.
The Spaniard, who has arguably been the Gunners’ player of the season so far, was mostly questioned about his fine form before turning attention to how his teammates stop the threat posed by Sporting and specifically their in-form striker Viktor Gyokeres.
Here’s what he had to say…
On playing behind a defence that has changed personnel regularly this season…
I don’t think it has affected us in any way, it’s just obviously we had some injuries but we have a great squad and anyone that can play in those positions we rely on and I know they’re going to do their job 100% so no matter who plays there, we feel confident that we’re going to defend and they’re going to do the right job.
On whether he feels more comfortable at Arsenal compared to when he joined and why that might be…
I think it’s a matter of adaptation. Everything has a process and I know at the start of last season there was a big debate and a lot of noise outside, but I think from January this year it’s just changed completely. I was more confident, I was showing what I was capable of and then after the summer I just felt myself, I felt I was in the right place and I think with all the performances and with help from the team it showed what we’re about here and what we’re capable of.
On last season’s penalty heroics against Porto marking lift-off for his Arsenal career…
Of course, it’s a nice moment to save two pens and get through to the next round and everything. My career started when I signed for Arsenal last season, that’s how I see it. Obviously, you have moments, good moments, bad moments, that’s part of football, but that’s a great memory to have in my mind and for everybody because it was many years ago that we didn’t get through to the quarter-finals.
On projecting positive and confident body language…
Yeah, I think it’s something that you work on and, like I said before, you adapt to new circumstances, a new club, a new environment and that takes a process, but obviously with the help of the staff and with the players it makes it much easier. I think it was just a matter of time before I was going to show what type of goalie I was.
On what it’s like making such a strong start to the season…
It’s nice but it’s past, it’s gone, it doesn’t matter anymore. We are here now, we are thinking in the present, we are thinking about tomorrow and to try and help the team as much as possible with performances like that. The past, you learn from your good things and from your bad things, so there’s going to be a moment where everybody makes mistakes and everything but obviously, it’s nice to hear that and to see that I’m helping the team.
On whether he’s more confident or if his improvement is down to improving on the training ground…
I would say it’s hard work, hard work pays off and hard work beats everything, so I try to work as hard as possible every day in training and try to look after myself as much as possible. It’s a little bit of everything but I would put it down to hard work.
On what Arteta has said about Sporting after their crushing win over Manchester City…
We know what to expect tomorrow, we know they’re in form, we know they’re a really, really good team, scoring a lot of goals but we’re here to win the game, to get the three points and to move forward. We’re not here to see things out, we’re very, very confident in ourselves to come here and get the three points.
On Sporting having a new man at the helm…
Yeah, yeah, we know, we know they’re very similar and they’re trying to do the same things but obviously, we expect he’s a new manager and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.
On who he thinks is the best keeper in the world…
Right now? That’s a tough question, I would say Thibaut Courtois for me, obviously now he’s injured, but I would still pick him.
On whether he wants to be considered one of the world’s best keepers…
I have different aspirations, but that’s a conversation for you guys to have. Of course, it’s nice to be in that talk and it’ll be nice to be there, but my aspiration is just to play football, to be the best version I am and be better tomorrow and the day after, so that’s what I’m thinking right now.
On what he needs to do to reach those heights…
Time will tell, time will tell.
On how Arsenal stop striker Viktor Gyokeres…
We know his strengths, we know he runs a lot in behind, he scores a lot of goals in 1v1 and of course, he’s a top player who is in form. We’re going to try to keep him very, very quiet tomorrow, don’t give him many chances, I think we have stepped up defensively, so hopefully we can do a great job and keep a clean sheet tomorrow, so that’ll be the best thing for us.
On whether he takes extra motivation from facing such a top striker…
I think it’s a motivation for everybody to keep a clean sheet because if you keep a clean sheet you’ve got a better chance to win the game. We know how strong we are in that aspect because we defend with all 11 players and we know what we’re capable of. Hopefully, we can keep a clean sheet tomorrow and it’ll be nice to keep him quiet so that’ll be really, really good for tomorrow.
On Arsenal respecting Sporting more having lost to them in 2023…
Like I said, we know it’s a tough opponent. They’re really, really in form in both competitions. They score a lot of goals but we are focused on ourselves. We want to be ourselves tomorrow, to play the football that we want to play and that we know how to play it and to make it very, very difficult for them to create chances and make it very, very difficult for them to win the game. We know what we’re expecting tomorrow and we’re going to go everything to win.
On the new Champions League format…
I only had one season in the Champions League. It was last season and this season is a little bit different because you play against a lot of clubs, a lot of games but every three points, every point is important in this competition and we know what we want. We want to get as many points as we can and qualify straight away to have less games to play as well – that would be a really, really good thing. But the Champions League is so good to play and it’s the best competition so we’re really, really happy to be here.
On the importance of avoiding a two-legged play-off…
Yeah, it’s really, really important If you get through to the next round straight away that’s two games less that you’re going to play so you can rest up and you can prepare the games even better so it’s really, really important
Great keeper, I wasn’t expecting him to be as good as he is. Helped by a solid defence in front of him.
Let’s hope we don’t have to play the two extra play-off matches.