Hours after a dramatic win over Luton Town, Arsenal fans will still be celebrating sitting top of the Premier League table by five points.
Just a few more seconds, that’s all it took. Luton needed a few more moments to hang on and they would have secured a deserved 3-3 draw at Kenilworth Road.
But in the big moments, those big players step up and that’s what happened with Declan Rice and his 97-minute winner for a jubilant Arsenal side.
Saying all of that. David Raya, you are one lucky boy because he made two glaring errors during the game and it nearly cost Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, big time!
Jamie O’Hara made it pretty clear on talkSPORT that if Arsenal continue with the on-loan Brentford star as their goalkeeper then, ‘I don’t think they can win the league’.
All of this will now land back on the doorstep of Mikel Arteta and his call to drop his previous number one, Aaron Ramsdale, for David Raya when many felt that he didn’t need to – Rob Holding has previously shared his thoughts.
He needs to bite the bullet on that one because, so far, it’s not looking good for him and Jamie O’Hara thinks the £85k-a-week star (Spotrac) will continue to be troublesome for his Premier League title-chasing side.
Will Arsenal win the Premier League title with David Raya?
“What I will say on this is that, I don’t believe Arsenal can win the league with that goalkeeper,” said O’Hara.
“If you look at the best teams that win every year. Mostly Manchester City or Liverpool. They have the best keepers. Petr Cech, Edwin van der Sar, Peter Schmeichel, Alisson Becker and Ederson.
“For me, Arsenal can’t win the Premier League with David Raya in goal. That’s where I think they got it wrong. If you are going to upgrade from Ramsdale, then you have to upgrade properly. David Raya isn’t that guy. He will cost them.
“He got away with it tonight. Declan Rice steps up. Havertz scores as well. Big moment for them, they win 4-3. Arsenal fans will be buzzing. But when you look at it, in the grand scheme of things, David Raya is a problem for them.”
Declan Rice has bailed out David Raya:
In truth, even though Arsenal have secured such a dramatic three points, it’s still a talking point, but it would have been much bigger had they dropped points.
But the great Arsenal goalkeeping debate of the season will rear its ugly head again.
Every time there is a piece of action, whether good or bad, from Raya, then the cameras will pan to Ramsdale sitting on the bench.
And yes, sometimes the media do hype it up. But, you can’t hide away from what Raya did yesterday because those two errors were just not on and he got away with it.