David Raya was called into action much more last season as the last line of defence for a team that was struggling to hold itself together in terms of fitness. The summer has seen the squad strengthen significantly, and the shot stopper spoke about the meaning of this "magnificent job" for Arsenal.
‘The depth was a little bit short’
From the experiment with Mikel Merino as a makeshift nine to the reliance on Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri as starters, the first half of 2025 laid bare the holes in the squad. The board responded with eight signings this summer, and Raya is impressed with the work behind the scenes.
“New signings have a key role just to improve the squad, improve depth, especially what happened last season with the injuries that we had and the depth. It was a little bit short and then the club did a magnificent job to recruit a lot of players, really good players, and they're going to be a key part.”
Raya recognises the value of having players who push the starters to bring their best work. For him, that person is Kepa Arrizabalaga, a compatriot who has come permanently from **Chelsea**as cover.
“Every single player that goes to the pitch trains with everyone, pushes each other. It's important to have that depth that that will make the team and the club better and that's really important to have.”
‘It’s really important to have that depth’
The weekend was a show of the strength in the ranks of the Gunners. Noni Madueke excelled as a deputy for Bukayo Saka on the right wing, Cristhian Mosquera did not miss a beat as the replacement for William Saliba, and Declan Rice rested for the first 68 minutes of the match.
To top it off, Leandro Trossard, forced to play more minutes outside of his ideal role as a super sub last term, came off the bench to assist a headed goal for Martin Zubimendi in the second half.
“It's really important to have that depth. There's a lot of talking about statistics about the finishers or the people that comes from the bench that change games and there's a lot like the other day like Leo, he touches he gets an assist. So they're really important no matter who plays in the starting eleven.”
The visit of **Man City**awaits on the weekend after the trip to the Basque Country. Arteta has a lot of options available to pick from, and time will tell if he makes the best use of a rest and rotation policy.
“I leave that to the boss. That's his decision. So, but I think it has he has a lot of quality players in each position. Not just one player or two players in this one position. There's like five or six players that can play in different positions. So, I leave that to the boss.”