Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says David Raya produced “one of the best saves I have seen in my career” against Atalanta in the Champions League.
Raya produced one the best double saves you will ever see, denying Mateo Retegui from the penalty spot before showing incredible reflexes to stop the Italian’s rebounded shot going in.
Reminiscent of his save against Ollie Watkins last month, Retegui had the whole goal gaping but the Spaniard was able to thwart what seemed a certain goal to put Arsenal behind.
The Gunners underwhelmed in Bergamo and have Raya to thank for avoiding defeat in their Champions League opening fixture of 2024/25.
There was a long VAR check to determine if Thomas Partey’s foul on Ederson happened inside the box and during the stoppage, Raya went up to the benches to speak to goalkeeper coach Inaki Cana.
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“It was a long wait and time to decide if it was a penalty or not, so I just wanted to speak to the goalkeeper coach to have more of a sense of which way I should go, what to do and what not to do,” he said.
“Credit to him because he helps me a lot in every aspect. He does all the work with everything and he also deserves credit for the save.
“It was just a penalty and I was lucky to go the right way. I was unlucky that the rebound went straight to him [Retegui] but I was quick enough to get up and save it. It is fantastic to be able to keep the clean sheet and to help the team to get at least a point.
Raya added: “We know this is a tough place to come. They are a magnificent team. I think we could have played a bit more and a bit better. We weren’t at our best.”
Arteta loved what his goalkeeper produced, stating that Raya pulled off “one of the best saves I have seen”.
The Arsenal manager said: “It’s probably one of the best saves I have seen in my career. He was unbelievable.”
On his team’s performance, Arteta added: “As we suspected, it was a tough match. Not the nicest to watch. We started really, really well and we were really commanding the game.
“We gave a lot of ball away and couldn’t get any rhythm. There are a lot of positives and there are a lot of things for sure to improve.”
Midfielder Declan Rice added: “It is really, really tough to win away in the Champions League. This side were European champions last year and they have had the same manager for nine years now, they play a man-to-man game all over the pitch and it is not easy.
“The main thing tonight is that we defended well, our high press was good, but with the ball we can be 10 or 15 times better.
“We gave the ball away sloppily a few times tonight when we could have hurt them. We took a few more touches instead of playing quick one and two touch all the time.
“They (Atalanta) follow you all over the pitch and it is hard to adjust and beat them. That is why we were trying to threaten in behind, the centre halves were following us deep so we tried to exploit that. Martinelli had a great chance at the end from that. On the ball we have to be better than what we showed tonight.”
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