Arteta hails Arsenal star’s ‘evolution’ ahead of Brentford showdown | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta has hailed the evolution he has seen from David Raya since the goalkeeper joined the club.

Raya takes on his former club Brentford on Thursday, having left the Bees in 2023 to join the Gunners initially on loan before completing a permanent move the following summer.

Arteta took the bold decision to replace first-choice goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale with Raya and the Arsenal boss says he has seen the shot stopper grow into his role in the last two-and-a-half years.

“Probably we have evolved and he has evolved as well,” Arteta explained.

“I think you need to find your place, your role and you need to be confident with that and I think that’s something that happens gradually when you come to a big club like Arsenal.

“And with Aaron and how much we liked and respected Aaron, it’s not easy to do it so he needed sometimes to do that.

“But I think it was quite immediately, the impact that David had in the team, and then obviously he evolved as the team evolved with the necessities that we have as a team to be better.”