Raya says Champions League final heartbreak 'in our veins' this season
David Raya has said the pain of losing last season's Champions League final on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain is driving Arsenal this campaign, insisting it is a scar that will never fully heal unless the club goes all the way this time.
The Spain goalkeeper was the standout performer again on Wednesday as Arsenal held off a spirited Slavia Prague fightback, producing a crucial diving save to deny Oskar Kubiak's header and preserve a 2-0 lead at the break. The win moved Mikel Arteta's side up to third in the league standings with 10 points from four matches and extended Arsenal's unbeaten run on the road in Europe to 10 matches.
The Friday Injury Tracker
Who's out, who's back and what it means for the next two games.
Reflecting on last season's final in Budapest, where Arsenal became the first team to win all eight league stage matches only to fall short against PSG on penalties, Raya made clear the defeat still weighs heavily on the squad.
“I think it is never going to be out of the system,” he said. “It is something that is going to live with us and hopefully we can win the Champions League to get that out of us. But it has to be in our veins. It has to be on us to make it better this year.”
Raya's self-belief the key to decisive saves
The goalkeeper's heroics against Slavia Prague were the latest in a run of high quality performances that have become a hallmark of his time at Arsenal. Raya missed out on the Yashin award for the best goalkeeper at the Ballon d'Or, with the honour going to his Spain teammate Unai Simón, but he pointed to self-belief and consistent hard work as the driving forces behind his form.
“Belief is really important but hard work [is, too],” he said. “I work very hard during the week to try and help the team as much as possible on these types of nights. It is just the belief that I have in myself, and the belief the staff, the goalie coach, has in me and the team. That gives you that extra edge and motivation to keep doing it every single week, and the consistency I have been playing with throughout the years is a key factor for us.”
Big European tests on the horizon
Arsenal's next Champions League assignment sees Borussia Dortmund visit the Emirates this month, before a potentially pivotal clash at home to Real Madrid on 9 December. A strong result against Madrid could prove crucial to Arsenal's hopes of finishing in the top two of the league phase, which would guarantee the second leg of any knockout tie is played at the Emirates.
With Raya continuing to deliver big moments between the posts and Arsenal building on last season's near miss, the focus now shifts to whether this campaign can end with silverware rather than heartbreak. The club's results against Dortmund and Madrid over the coming weeks should offer a clearer picture of how realistic that ambition is.
Quotes via The Guardian.
