David Raya reveals how Arsenal coach’s touchline chat inspired double save

David Raya made a stunning double save to deny Atalanta and ensure Arsenal claimed a point from their opening Champions League match in the new-look format.

The Gunners goalkeeper had just saved a penalty, then sprung to deny Mateo Retegui for a second time as he attempted to follow up the initial save with a header.

Mikel Arteta hailed it as “probably one of the best saves I have seen in my career” and called Raya “unbelievable.”

The save itself has drawn comparisons to another one of Arsenal’s glovemen, David Seaman’s hooked save against Sheffield United in the 2003 FA Cup semi-final.

In Bergamo, Raya had to wait for the penalty to be taken because of a VAR check, and used the time to receive a crucial pep-talk from goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana.

“It was a long wait and time to decide if it was a penalty or not, so I just wanted to speak to the goalkeeper coach to have more of a sense of which way I should go, what to do and what not to do,” he said afterwards.

“Credit to him because he helps me a lot in every aspect. He does all the work with everything and he also deserves credit for the save.”

Raya has reportedly faced 57 penalties in his career and only saved seven of them, but four of those came in the last eight spot-kicks he has faced. Prior to that he conceded 19 in a row.

Arsenal return to the Etihad Stadium this weekend as they look to go one better than they have managed in the last two campaigns when they finished as runners-up to Manchester City, who have won the last four Premier League titles, setting a new record in the process.