David Raya admitted there was little he could do but accept Mikel Arteta’s controversial decision to leave his first choice goalkeeper out of his starting line-up for the Carabao Cup final defeat against Manchester City.
The Spain international has been one of Arsenal’s standout performers throughout the course a season which could yet end in Premier League and Champions League glory, despite two recent setbacks.
A comprehensive Wembley defeat against City saw hopes of a quadruple go up in some and that damaging loss was compounded by a shock FA Cup reversal at Southampton last weekend.
On both occasions Arteta opted to select his cup keeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, and leave Raya on the bench.
The summer signing from Chelsea committed a ghastly error to gift City the lead in the League Cup final and although he was powerless to prevent with of the Saints’ goals at St Mary’s,Arsenal’s normally dependable back four looked jittery without Raya’s calming presence behind them.
Raya will return to the starting XI this evening as Arsenal attempt to get their campaign back on track against Sporting Lisbon and the former Brentford star was in philosophical mood after being forced to watch the last two matches from the sidelines.
He said: ‘Its part of football. Sometimes you get picked, sometimes you don’t.
Get your football fix
Metro's weekly newsletter In The Mixer delivers punchy analysis and breakdowns of the biggest football stories directly to your inbox.
Sign up here, it's an open goal.
‘You have to be there for your teammates, and for Kepa in this example. The boss decides who plays and who doesn’t and we are used to those types of decisions.’
On the mood in the camp after seeing hopes of ending a six-year trophy drought evaporate at the hands of their main rivals for the league title, Raya added: ‘After the Man City game, we went away, he stayed here. After Southampton there is not much you can say.
‘The team understands the standards that we set, so there are no conversations. You are just trying to be a good teammate like we are.’
A positive result in Lisbon this evening would, meanwhile, help steady the ship and generate a measure of momentum ahead of a huge game against Bournemouth on Saturday which will provide an opportunity to extend Arsenal’s lead over City to 12 points, albeit having played two games more.
‘I think every game is an opportunity and the next game is tomorrow,’ added Raya.
‘There will be talk about the two losses but we have to see it as an opportunity to see what we are and it is a massive one tomorrow but this team is up for it.’
Arsenal have happy memories of the Jose Alvalade Stadium given they romped to a 5-1 win at the same venue last season but Arteta sounded a note of caution in his pre-match press conference.
‘Every moment of a team is different, obviously they’re in a high moment, especially the way they got into the quarter-finals and the game they played, for example, here against Paris or the recent form in the league,’ he said.
‘That’s it, at the moment the whistle goes, it’s a game, it’s a game that’s going to have different kind of moments and it’s how we’re going to master those moments to take the game where we want and win it.
‘They have a lot of quality, as you say, a lot of variability within the spaces that a lot of players can occupy in the attacking phase and then they can unbalance the game because they have individual quality and you haven’t mentioned some others as well that they have the capacity to do that.
‘Obviously, the phase of play when those players get in those positions starts earlier normally. So the problem starts earlier than sometimes in this moment it’s too late to give the solution. That’s what we’re trying to do.’
No comments:
Post a Comment