David Raya: Great goalie or great defense?

David Raya is having a reputationally great start to the season. But how good an entry into the season has Arsenal’s September player of the month really had?

• David Raya is in excellent form
• He’s also player of the month
• Is he not just benefiting from excellent defending?

The winner of the London Gunners’ Player of the Month award, David Raya, is enjoying the celebrations of the supporters. The current wave of praise comes less than a year after another wave full of doubt. “Why are we bringing this Spaniard in when Ramsdale is catching here?” asked some Arsenal admirers a year ago. A year on, they have their answer.

Aaron Ramsdale left the club in the summer when he headed to the south coast for €22m to League One returnee Southampton. David Raya, meanwhile, is collecting individual trophies at the Capitol. Yet, has his entry into the new Premier League season been so admirable?

In numbers, 5.1 PSG worth of opponents’ finishes have been heading towards the Gunners goal. The metric takes into account the quality of the finish and calculates the probability of the goalkeeper defusing the shot. How many goals has David Raya conceded in the opening seven rounds of the Premier League? Six. So as a goalkeeper on the touchline, he is in the red according to the subliminal metrics.

By comparison, in another leading team in England’s top competition, Alisson has cashed in just twice from 4.5 PSG. Moreover, even the conversion rate for individual finishes portrays the Liverpool goalkeeper better. The quality of Alisson’s finishes aimed between the three posts is 0.27 PSxG/SoT (Shot on Target). Arsenal’s defence lets their shot-stopper finish at an average quality of 0.17 PSxG/SoT.

In London, however, there is a symbiosis between the goalkeeper and the defence. Raya, in turn, picks up 12% of the centres that head into his penalty area out of the air. A figure almost double the goalkeeping average in the rest of Europe’s top competitions.

The Gunners keeper’s appetite to run out of his own penalty area and cover the space behind the higher up defensive line also allows Arsenal to put pressure on opponents higher up the field. With Ray’s 1.4 defensive actions outside the penalty area every 90 minutes, Arteta’s men may be the second fastest attacking team in the league. Only Tottenham’s Ange Postecoglou attempts defensive action after losing the ball faster than Arsenal.

The start of the year in terms of goal-line performances has not been good enough for David Ray to merit the celebrations he is currently enjoying. However, his skills are allowing the whole of Arsenal to pedal like a well-oiled machine and for that he deserves the current ovation without a doubt.

Sources: fbref.com, Understat.com