Raya rising to occasion for Arsenal despite derby blip

The goalkeeper relishes title pressure and remained composed after his mistake gifted Tottenham a goal

- Nick Ames

It was the kind of mistake, so aberrant and out of keeping with everything before it, that can derail an entire season's work. David Raya's blunder at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was hardly on the scale of a Steven Gerrard slip but, as Spurs took grateful receipt of the gift and threw everything into a late barrage on the Arsenal goal, there was the short-lived sense that one simple miscue could prove decisive.

Would Raya have attempted a sand-wedged pass to Thomas Partey if Arsenal had not been three goals up? Perhaps not. Would Cristian Romero, a centreback, have been the man to intercept and score if Spurs had not needed a performative show of buccaneering to rouse them? That seems especially unlikely. The afternoon's tone transformed but what ultimately mattered for Mikel Arteta's side was that Raya rediscovered his composure and, in those dying moments, dominated his box to see them home.