BBC pundit very surprised by ‘extremely poor’ Arsenal man’s performance vs Chelsea

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An awful lot has been made of how the goalkeeping situation at Arsenal and David Raya’s performance against Chelsea only added fuel to the fire.

Covering the match for BBC 5 Live, Pat Nevin expressed his opinion on the 28-year-old after a shaky display at Stamford Bridge.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will be pleased to have come away with a point in a difficult match against Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Cole Palmer gave the hosts the lead from the penalty spot before Mykhaylo Mudryk doubled their lead with a cross that looped over the Spanish goalkeeper.

Aaron Ramsdale wasn’t in the Arsenal squad after the birth of his daughter yesterday, giving Arteta an easy decision to make between the sticks.

After previously claiming he could rotate his goalkeepers, David Raya has very much established himself as Arsenal’s number one.

However, Pat Nevin was unimpressed with Raya’s distribution against Chelsea as he struggled to find his Arsenal teammates, with Gary Neville agreeing he had a difficult evening.

Considering that was one of the key reasons why he was signed from Brentford, that might worry Arteta.

The conditions weren’t easy to play in yesterday and his counterpart Robert Sanchez also struggled for Chelsea.

But without kicking a ball, Ramsdale’s chances of getting back into the side may have been boosted last night, especially after impressing in training recently.

Arsenal star Raya struggles against Chelsea

Speaking about the 28-year-old, Nevin said: “It’s quite surprising that [David] Raya doesn’t look that comfortable on the ball here because his teammates are getting closed down.

“The centre-backs are being closed down so he’s not getting easy passes to make and he’s looking a bit rattled on the ball.

Later on in the game, Raya’s distribution was still a talking point after giving the ball away to Cole Palmer and Nevin added: “Do you know and we did mention it earlier, he’s not looked good on the ball today at all, at any point.

“And that is awful that one, you should never play that pass, had it got through to his teammate, he was marked anyway but it never even got there.

“He’s not been good on the ball, his passing from the back has been extremely poor, you have to call it the way it is.”

Raya did well to recover from his mistake when he gifted Palmer the ball in the second half.

Chelsea would have been out of sight and Arsenal would have struggled to recover from Raya’s mistake.

Having said he might rotate his goalkeepers, giving Raya a chance to increase his confidence against Sevilla on Tuesday now seems like the best option.

Dropping him at this stage would be a huge call and might set a difficult precedent every time one of his goalkeepers has a tough day.