The other thing is.. Raya was pretty bad today. He was nervy and made 4-5 errors that could have costs us. If Arteta is being fair... Ramsdale should start our next match.
I thought he looked jittery for the first 25 minutes, but after that, I thought he was fine. His pass accuracy from long balls wasn't great, but we didn't have much height in our attack compared to the 6'1/6'2 defenders the players were competing with. And, up until Partey came on, Rice was our only tall/combative midfielder in the middle, so winning second balls was always going to be tough (although I thought Rice was superb in that respect). My main concern is that, from what I've seen so far, I don't see a huge difference between him and Ramsdale. Is Raya for Ramsdale really that much of an upgrade? I'm not convinced.
Nope, technically I don't think he's an upgrade. But then I do think Ramsdale is top class. When you watch Ramsdale warming up his long distance passing is UNBELIEVEABLE and he makes great saves.. The thing I thought Raya would bring us is calmness but today he looked just as nervous in front of an edgy home crowd as Ramsdale ever has.
Raya was a mess. He has been put under pressure in 3 games and made critical mistakes in all 3. I don’t see why he’s in the team. Ramsdale has better passing too. Fabulous win though. A lot of people didn’t enjoy the spectacle of it. i loved it. The tactical battle out there was brilliant and it warms my heart to see a back 4 plus Rice and Jorgihno so well drilled, so concentrated. White and Gabriel were great and the beyond great was Saliba. Rice also superb. i love this team. They work like crazy.
Thought Raya's passing in the last 25 mins was superb, but other than that I don't see what more he offers over Ramsdale. Anyway, a ****ing superb win yesterday.
He's very good. Not sure he's as good as Aaron though. Watching the GK's warmup at home games - it always surprises me how good Ramsdale's distribution is. I thought Raya would be good for penalties which Ramsdale seems to struggle with. I also thought he might bring a calmness to the backline. But on sheer ability - I think Ramsdale might just edge Raya.
A couple of players who I feel went under the radar with their performances yesterday. 1. Ben White - thought he was pretty much faultless. Tracked the runs of Alvarez/Foden well, excellent in 1v1 situations, technically superb, won his duels and was very defensively sound. Saliba is getting the majority of the plaudits, followed by Gabriel, but White deserves a mention too. Another top performance. 2. Jorginho - after his mistake against Spurs, I was absolutely livid because he'd effectively cost us the game seconds after going 2-1 in front. However, he followed that up with a great performance against Brentford in the League Cup, and he did well starting yesterday too. I will be honest and say I wasn't too keen with him starting yesterday, but fair play to him. Positionally disciplined, some nice interceptions, a few good tackles and kept the ball ticking over. Did a very solid job.
Another thing that impressed me yesterday was Artetas tactical adjustments. Pep brought Doku on to exploit the space left by Zinchenko inverting. (you could immediately see he was going to cause us problems). So Arteta countered by bringing Tomiyasu on in a more defensive role. Pep Immediately switched it by pushing Doku over to the other wing and Arteta adjusted by getting White to sit deep almost as a third CB and allowing Tomi to invert and get forward. It was that adjustment that lead to our goal.
Tactically Mikel came of age on Sunday. It was brilliant. I really enjoyed the game because of the tactical shifts both managers were implementing as the game progressed, even though from an attacking sense it was not entertaining. Mikel won, not just because we scored and won, but the way he countered Pep and we gained control when he did.
