November 11th 2023.
Paul Merson has been highly critical of Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya following his mistake in last weekend's defeat at Newcastle. The summer signing from Brentford was at fault for Anthony Gordon's controversial winning goal, which had been subject to three separate VAR checks.
Merson believes the controversy could have been avoided had Raya done his job. In an interview with Sky Sports, Merson said: "Mikel Arteta has gone mad at the end of the day, his goalkeeper has sold him up the river. The goalkeeper should catch that every day of the week."
Merson then went on to criticise the positional play of Raya, noting how it wasn't even a great cross that he failed to collect. He added: "If you watch his positional play, I'm not a goalie but I played with two of the best you'll ever see in David Seaman and Peter Schmeichel the positional play there was unbelievable. It wasn't even a great cross it was middle of the goal."
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was furious in the post-match interview and the club subsequently backed their manager with a strongly worded statement that criticised the match officials. However, Merson believes the criticism could have been avoided if Raya had done his job.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
