Jamie Carragher has had his say on one of Aston Villa's top performers this season.placeholder image
Jamie Carragher has had his say on one of Aston Villa's top performers this season. | Getty Images
Jamie Carragher has changed his mind over an Arsenal star he doubted in the summer.
Jamie Carragher has eaten his words over Arsenal star David Raya as the Gunners close in on a Premier League title. Arsenal are in a commanding position at the top and now look very likely to end their more than two decade-long title drought.
The Gunners are nine points clear having played a game more, although they do still need to play City, and not just in the Carabao Cup final this weekend.
Arsenal have had an ultra-strong squad to call upon this season, with Mikel Arteta having depth aplenty across his squad. And one of the standout performers has been goalkeeper David Raya, who has 15 clean sheets in the Premier League this season - four more than City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
At the start of the season, Carragher tipped Donnarumma to be the standout goalkeeper. He said: “At the start of the season, I didn’t think there was any way City could win the league because of the goalkeeping situation.
“No one wins a Premier League without an absolutely great goalkeeper and there’s no doubt about Donnarumma, a Champions League winner who won the Euros with Italy. They’ve got a goalkeeper who can win the league. before they signed him, there was no way they could win a league without signing someone of that calibre.”
But Carragher has now changed his mind after seeing consistent performances from Raya all season. He said on Sky Sports: “Absolutely and I think most of us favoured Donnarumma, didn’t we because of his experience and the fact he’s been there before.
“But there’s no doubt that Donnarumma blinked first. He made an error, corners can be difficult for goalkeepers now but that wasn’t really the case here.”
He added: “Listen, we think Arsenal are going to go on to win the Premier League. If they do, he [Raya] has been one of the biggest reasons why. Not just this season, but the actual signing and changing Aaron Ramsdale for him.
“That save when the game was 0-0, it was absolutely brilliant goalkeeping and kept the score goalless and we all know what happened at the end of the game.”
Few can disagree with Carragher’s latest assessment, with Raya having been head and shoulders the best goalkeeper in the Premier League this season.
Continue Reading