In Arsenal’s many times of need this season, their man with the shovel-sized hands has often come to the rescue.
The shortest goalkeeper currently playing in the Premier League, at 6ft, David Raya has long defied the limitations of his height.
His size 11 goalkeeping gloves, among the largest used in the league, are put to work thanks to his cat-like reflexes, and his impressive form all season long has been the bedrock for much of Arsenal’s success.
With the Gunners having crashed out of both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup at the hands of Manchester City and Championship Southampton respectively, only two competitions remain.
With Mikel Arteta’s side reeling from those setbacks, it is time for Raya to utilise the fight and determination which first earned him a professional contract at Blackburn Rovers aged 16, and got him through a horrific injury to his nose which required extensive surgery. The Spaniard was rested for those two painful cup defeats; how badly the Gunners need a lift in a season which now hangs in the balance.
Kepa Arrizabalaga donned the gloves for those games, his error-laden display against City in particular serving as a reminder to how crucial Raya is to this team. Without him, they are vulnerable, susceptible to errors in the box and limited in their distribution from the back.
David Raya has come to Arsenal’s rescue many times this season, with his impressive form the bedrock for much of their success
His remarkable shot-stopping abilities were sorely missed in Arsenal’s cup defeats by Manchester City and Southampton
Happily, Raya has made a habit, when required, of springing up from the shadows with the fortitude of a man making up for lost time. Those seven years he spent toiling away in England’s lower divisions have all led to this – the defining period of the most exciting season of his career, starting with Sporting Lisbon away in Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday.
The instances across this campaign when the 30-year-old has had to pull off a stupendous stop or two would make a lengthy list.
Take his stoppage-time save to deny Alejandro Garnacho against Chelsea on March 1 with the score 2-1, backpedalling to tip the ball beyond the far post; it required every drop of his athleticism. Arteta admitted afterwards: ‘My heart almost stopped. But David’s hand was there to bring it back to life.’
Or earlier in the campaign, thwarting Brighton at the Emirates on December 27 with a wonder save from Yankuba Minteh’s curling strike.
His accurate long-range passing, and quick, accurate throw-outs to start attacks mean Raya is among the world’s ultimate ‘sweeper-keepers’.
Yet, the foundations go all the way back to his formative teenage years, when Blackburn took a punt on a 16-year-old playing for Catalonia side Cornella.
Raya was brought in on a scholarship to join Rovers’ academy. He signed a professional contract two years later and was sent on a four-month loan spell to Conference Premier club Southport aged 19.
Rob Urwin, part of the club’s media team and a Southport fan since 1971, remembers the day Raya arrived.
Raya, then 19, during a formative loan spell at Conference side Southport. ‘He got stuck in and got on really well with everyone,’ recalls Southport fan Rob Urwin
‘He’d never met the defence before and we had an absolute nightmare. We lost 3-0 at Macclesfield that night,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘He didn’t have the best of games and we all started thinking, “What on earth have we done here?”. We lost the next one 1-0. And then there was one where we lost 5-2. So he was conceding a lot of goals but to be fair, he was getting used to all the players around him and everything. I think non-League came as a bit of a shock, to be honest. But then he gradually got better and better.’
For ‘Spanish Dave’, as the Southport fans called him, the heights of the Premier League were far away, acclimatising to a Merseyside seaside town his most pressing hurdle. Yet he made a lasting impression.
‘He could hardly speak English as well, struggling with the language,’ says Urwin. ‘His mum came over with him and he’d not been in the country long. But he proved himself. He was a special lad. He won a couple of man of the match (awards) with us and I always remember his mum was there to support him.
‘He’d come from a higher level, not used to having to wash his own kit, washing his own boots, and he got on with it. And he was so humble about being at Southport.
‘He wasn’t a “big-headed Charlie” or anything like that. He didn’t come and think this was beneath him. He got stuck in and he got on well with everybody and really made it his home.
‘My wife – who is a football photographer – and I actually presented him with a certificate as an honorary member of our trust because everyone just fell in love with him.’
Raya had to wear a protective face mask for weeks after a horror facial injury he suffered while playing for Blackburn in 2018
The Spaniard returned to Blackburn and went on to make more than 100 appearances for the first team. From there he joined Brentford in 2019, before making the move to Arsenal in a deal that cost £30million after an initial season on loan.
Those early days in the EFL have never left him, though.
Raya said on Monday: ‘Those moments, especially at Southport and Blackburn, they made me the person and the player I am today.
‘I went out of my comfort zone to play other types of football. I was obviously playing for the Under 21s at Blackburn. Of course, my later career, playing most of my time in the Championship and the League One, it makes me more happy to be where I am right now.
‘If you fight for it, it can happen. I’m just living the dream playing for this football club and fighting for these titles.’
Sandwiched between his days out on loan and his arrival at the Emirates was a sickening facial injury in November 2018, after an accidental collision with West Brom striker Jay Rodriguez – the kind of blow which could have derailed him.
Raya required oxygen and was taken to hospital, with his Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray claiming the bone at the top of his nose was ‘almost pushed into his skull’.
Mikel Arteta deserves credit for bringing Raya in at a time when Arsenal already had a popular goalkeeper in Aaron Ramsdale
Raya has won back-to-back Golden Glove awards since joining Arsenal and is set to make it three in a row, with his 15 clean sheets clear of nearest rivals Jordan Pickford and Gianluigi Donnarumma (both on 11)
He had to wear a protective mask for two weeks after his return, the injury less serious than initially feared, but it was the way Raya tackled the situation which mirrors the fortitude he has shown in an Arsenal shirt. Fight and grit are embedded within him.
Arteta deserves credit, too. The surprise decision to sign Raya on loan back in August 2023, with Aaron Ramsdale a popular figure in the Arsenal fanbase, was a controversial one.
Back-to-back Golden Glove awards later – the gong for the most clean-sheets in a Premier League season – the move has proven to be the step Arsenal needed to take to reach that next level.
In Raya and his big hands, the Gunners have the goalkeeping foundations to lift the most prestigious silverware club football has to offer come May.
