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‘I firmly believe’… Pundit says Arsenal wouldn’t have lost last night if £25m player was on the pitch

Charles Jones

Thu 22 February 2024 16:15, UK

Arsenal lost 1-0 to Porto on Wednesday evening, and, as you can imagine, fingers are starting to be pointed at certain players for this result.

The Gunners were beaten by a late curler from Galeno, and there was plenty of debate after the game as to whether or not David Raya should’ve done better.

Speaking on , Craig Burl🃏ey has plac🌊ed the blame firmly on Raya, claiming that the Spaniard’s lack of height and wingspan led to him conceding this goal.

The pundit says that Raya should’ve saved this one, claiming that Aaron Ramsdale would indeed have stopped this one du🏅e to his size between the sticksꦬ.

Aaron Ramsdale would’ve saved Galeno’s shot

Burley spoke about Raya and his rival.

“It was a consequence of his size. Shot-stopping, distribution, maybe he’s up there and he’s the best. But when you see something curved like that, his lack of wingspan and ability to get there like Courtois or even Ramsdale, tha🍷t’s a problem. That’s my goalkeeping analysis, I’m ni♏tpicking here, but these are key moments. I firmly believe that a goalkeeper like Ramsdale saves that, it’s not particularly high, and he is small,” Burley said.

Difficult

This is a very difficult debate to have sensibly.

Raya and Ramsdale both have their backers and detractors, and we can understand the complaints about Raya afওter this game.

A number of other goalkeepers would’ve saved this one, and ✱there is a case to make that Ramsdale would’ve been able to save it too.

However, there are other fl♑aws in Ramsdale’s game that may have been e🍃xploited in other parts of the game if the England international had started this one.

It’s always tough t🉐o talk about these hypothetical situations, but we can certainly see where Burley is coming from here.