Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel insists that Arsenal “would have been nowhere near” the Premier League title without David Raya.

The Gunners have won six of their first seven Premier League matches this season and sit in second place, three points adrift of leaders Manchester City.

Arsenal won their first Premier League title in 22 years under Mikel Arteta last term, while the Spaniard also guided the Gunners to the Champions League final, where they lost out to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties.

And former Man Utd goalkeeper Schmeichel insists that Arsenal would not have been able to get near winning a Premier League title without Raya, who they signed from Brentford for £27m in 2024 after an initial season-long loan spell.

Schmeichel said on The Overlap Daily: “David Raya has done really well. I was really surprised.

“I have to give Mikel Arteta some credit, because when Aaron Ramsdale was playing for Arsenal, I thought he did really well.

“I liked his aggression, flying out and all of that, so I was surprised they brought another goalkeeper in, and that it was him [Raya].

“But I interviewed him last season when they won the championship, and I said, ‘Just so you know, if you had not been in that goal, you would have been nowhere near the championship.’

“I absolutely mean that, because he came up with all the important saves. In order to win the Premier League, you have to take chances and commit more people going forward.

“As I said before, that means defending with fewer people, and the chances that came from that, he was making big saves at crucial times. One of the things where he has massively improved is coming for crosses.

“And he’s got to the point where, when there’s a chance, you think, ‘No, he’s going to save it, it’s not going to be a goal.’ You have that feeling before it happens, and that’s good going.”

Arteta: Beating Nottingham Forest was a ‘big win’

Arsenal were far from their best as they beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 at the weekend but Arteta was happy to get a big three points over the line.

Reacting to the victory over Nottingham Forest, Arteta said: “Big win. A win that we didn’t have in the last two seasons at a really tough place.

“We knew the game was going to be with small margins, especially if we were going to score in the first few minutes, which we didn’t do. There’s a team that is extremely difficult to break down.

“Almost everything has to be perfect, but you even need to take in the chaotic moments, which we had in the first half a few, but we didn’t hit the target.

“Then in the second half we had to play a completely different game; stay very far from any frustration, elevate the level of threat and risk that we would have to take.

“But at the same time, be very composed and disciplined to make sure that the game doesn’t open up and lose it, and we sustained the level. We had better moments, more sustained attacks, much closer to the 18-yard box.”