David Seaman thought £27m Arsenal player’s passing was poor vs Man City

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Arsenal legend David Seaman thought David Raya was fortunate to get away with some poor passing against Manchester City on Sunday.

Speaking on his podcast ‘Seaman Says’, the goalkeeper said you could feel the tension in the stadium every time Raya got the ball.

Seaman pointed out that Raya is usually a brilliant distributor but he just had a difficult day for Arsenal.

He said: “You could feel the tension and every time Raya got it, the fans were like wanting him to get rid of it a bit earlier.

“He got caught by [Phil] Foden, when he got a block on him and it just went the right side of the post for Arsenal.

“Some of his distribution wasn’t the best. He needs to tidy that up.

“He knows that and he is good at that, that’s one of his strongest assets is his passing.

“But you could feel the tension and every time he held on to it the crowd were screaming at him to get rid of it but I felt he was under control apart from a couple.”

Seaman thought Raya recovered well from a nervous start at Arsenal

Of course, it does need to be pointed out that Raya did overcome a big test.

There’s few teams better at pressing in world football than Man City.

And if you’re a goalkeeper who is feeling the pressure and nerves, you don’t want to see Julian Alvarez closing you down.

However, £27m Raya did improve and should take a lot of confidence from his clean sheet – even if it was fortuitous.

It does need to be remembered that the Spaniard is making a huge step up from Brentford, he will need some patience whilst settling.

Given Raya replaced Aaron Ramsdale almost immediately, it felt as if he needed to be faultless from the off.

But given the style of football he’s been tasked with, that’s almost impossible.

And David Seaman may be the first to point out just how difficult Raya and Ramsdale’s tactical brief is at Arsenal these days.