Ian Wright has called out David Raya over his “lack of concentration” in Arsenal’s win over Brentford on Wednesday, as the goalkeeper’s error was nearly “disastrous” for the Gunners.
Bryan Mbeumo gave the hosts the lead against the run of play early on, but Gabriel Jesus scored again to level the scores before two quick fire goals from Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli ensured a 3-1 victory for Arteta’s side.
But the Gunners very nearly went two goals down, with their first of the night coming less than a minute after Raya let Keane Lewis-Potter’s fierce drive through his hands before clawing the bouncing ball off his line.
“It’s a lack of concentration from David Raya,” Arsenal legend Wright told Premier League Productions.
“He does brilliantly to recover. You can see the desperation from him. You can see how close it was.
“That would have been disastrous, especially with the way Arsenal were dominating.”
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Ethan Nwaneri was handed his full Premier League debut and was roundly praised by pundits and fans, with Wright particularly impressed by his delivery from set pieces, with one corner leading to Merino’s goal.
“What we’ve seen from him is his technical ability and great pace,” Wright added. “Plus one of the most difficult things to do, something I probably wouldn’t have been able to do, which is take corners.
“I remember once I said to Arsene Wenger if I could take corners. He said no, because to put it into an area where so much is riding [on it]… it’s such a difficult skill.
“When you’ve got players, especially away from home, who can put the ball in an area – that’s perfect. I couldn’t do that.”
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Arteta confirmed after the game that he was picked because he was the best option, though also had another weirder and superstitious reason for selecting him.
The Spaniard said: “It was a decision that I made because I thought he was the best player to play in the position to start the game and because there was a story there, with his debut here and when he made his Premier League debut [against Brentford in September 2022] and sometimes, that feeling comes in and it’s the right one and then who knows?”
Mikel Arteta went on to explain why he took time to integrate Nwaneri into the team.
“A part of that development, it’s patience. It’s managing frustration and managing expectation because you expect that everything is going to go so fast as previous things happen and it’s not the case.”
“So now we’re building him and he’s played already a lot of games, a lot of minutes for us for the age he is and he fully deserves that.”
