David Raya on why he loves being a ‘proactive’ keeper and his battle with Aaron Ramsdale for Arsenal’s No1 shirt

• The Spaniard has been picked ahead of Aaron Ramsdale by Mikel Arteta
• Ramsdale’s dad has criticised Arteta for the treatment of his son this season
• Look how Villa rebounded from a 5-1 loss… they’re dangerous! It’s All Kicking Off

It doesn’t take very long in the company of David Raya to understand what a massive impact Arsenal goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana has had on his career.

‘When I got to Brentford he changed my way of playing, my way of seeing the game,’ he says. ‘He has a way of understanding football and he demanded certain things of me that no one had before.’

The two of them were together for six months in West London and Raya would go on to help get Brentford promoted to the Premier League, and get himself in the Spain team.

It’s on international duty that he is giving this interview. There’s a reticence at first to talk club football but he’s aware that he’s left a debate raging back in England over who should be Arsenal’s number one.

Today it will be Aaron Ramsdale because loanee Raya still belongs to opponent Brentford, but 12 times this season it’s been the 28-year-old Spaniard.

David Raya has opened up on his relationship with Aaron Ramsdale at Arsenal this season

Raya was chosen ahead of Ramsdale by Gunners boss Mikel Arteta after joining from Brentford

The Spaniard said he has a good rapport with Ramsdale and it is up to Arteta who starts in goal

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Does he feel the debate is exaggerated because his rival is an England international? ‘Well, that’s you [saying that] I’m not going to get involved in that,’ he says. ‘Everyone has their opinion. If they want to debate let them. I have a very good relationship with Aaron and both of us are there to help the team. In the end it is the manager who chooses who plays.

Arsenal fans are divided. Some believe Raya will eventually prove himself to be an upgrade. Others believe his signing tried to fix something that wasn’t broken.

What’s clear is that he is very sure about what kind of keeper he needs to be – it’s the type that Cana first demanded at Brentford.

Of those six months in the Championship he says: ‘He wanted me to be more proactive than reactive. A proactive goalkeeper is someone who prevents things from happening, not just one who reacts to a shot. He wants his goalkeeper to prevent the team from conceding chances.’

There are risks involved and it also means a keeper can stand out less. ‘People don’t notice you because they don’t see you making so many saves,’ he says.

‘They don’t see for example that you have taken a position a bit higher up the pitch for when the ball is played in behind. Or you’ve intercepted a pass instead of turning and then having to make the save. Or being in a slightly higher position when crosses come to be able to claim them.

‘Inaki made me see these things. Before that I was a very reactive keeper and I played further back because I was quick and I could arrive at places perhaps other goalkeepers couldn’t. But now playing a bit higher up I still reach those places and I cover more of my area.’

The aggressive positioning has become his trademark. His detractors would argue it’s been his undoing a couple of times so far this season. He argues it’s been to his betterment, although he can still improve.

Ramsdale’s father, Nick, believes his son has lost his ‘smile’ since losing his place to Raya

Ramsdale was replaced as Arsenal’s No 1 by Raya at the start of the season and has played only seven games 

‘My aerial game five or six years ago was not so good in terms of the statistics for dealing with corners and crosses. Now I’m up towards the top of the table in terms of crosses caught,’ says the six footer.

‘Before I would wait on my line and wait for the shot or header to make that save that it’s better not to have to make.

‘But you can always get better in everything. There is no ceiling. There are always things that can be improved. I need to keep proving myself and I think in a couple of years I will be in my prime.’

Perhaps there is another reason why Raya divides opinion. He comes with the reputation of being as good as any keeper with his feet. He laughs at the suggestion Jurgen Klopp did him no favours saying he played out from the back ‘like a No. 10’.

‘Well if you look at the stats and then say I can only play with my feet, the stats tell another story, they make a lie of that,’ he says. ‘Everyone has the right to a voice and an opinion. As players we have to take it and not let it affect us.’

He’s insightful when asked to elaborate on how he manages to deal with errors during games. There is an important part played by sports psychologists and a part played by upbringing too. He moved from Catalan club Cornella to Blackburn Rovers when he was only 16.

‘I don’t think you can train for that precise moment after you’ve made a mistake but it’s something that in the end is within you, it depends on how strong you are.

‘I had to mature much sooner and that is what has made me so strong mentally, I missed my parents and I realised that an error on the pitch should not affect me in the moment, even if it did afterwards.

‘Of course, it’s not good to commit mistakes but there will always be errors. And there are errors that perhaps people don’t even notice where I shouldn’t have come out, I should have stayed back a bit. Mistakes that people don’t notice because they didn’t end in goals but I notice and I analyse them with the goalkeeper coaches and that is what makes me a better keeper.’

Raya will be unable to face parent club Brentford when the Gunners play the Bees on Saturday

Arteta confirmed Ramsdale will start the game at Brentford in the absence of No 1 Raya

Raya said there was always room for improvement as he discussed his mixed start to the season

He says clubs without sports psychologists are now far rarer than those with, but warns: ‘They have helped me a lot and I still use them because there is nothing bad in it but you have to go to the sports psychologists not when you are feeling bad but when you are feeling good to prolong that [state] and to get the tools so that if a dip comes you can come back from it.

‘If you have a dip and you wait a long time to talk with a sports psychologist or the people that you trust in – it’s not just sports psychologists – then it will be more difficult to get back to your best.’

This maybe isn’t his best moment, but it’s far from his worst either. He is sat on the concrete steps that lead up to the stand that overlooks pitch number one at Spain’s training ground. Forty-eight hours after this interview he’ll start in goal for his country in a 3-1 win over Cyprus.

Raya, now 28, began his career in England with Blackburn and played 98 games for Rovers

He’s come a long way from turning up at Blackburn aged-16, speaking no English. He played 98 games for them as well as 16 at Southport during an eye-opening three months with the Conference club.

‘At Southport we trained in the local university. You had breakfast at home,’ he said. ‘You had to take your own gear home to wash. You had to bring your own towel. It brings you down to earth and teaches you not to take things for granted.

‘There were players who really relied on the win bonus. For those that combined playing with having a day job, it could be the difference between making it to the end of the month or not.’

Arsenal is very different and he embraces that. The club is huge,’ he says. ‘One of the biggest in the world. We are very well looked after and the exposure and the pressure is far greater. But that is why you want to be there, and you have to deal with it.’

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