Retour
Arsenal will have an element of concern over recent comments from David Raya.
Raya has spoken of a desire to play in La Liga at some point in his career and his comments will have turned some heads at The Emirates.
“Right now, I’m very happy at Arsenal, but it’s true that I’d love to play in La Liga one day. It’s a very competitive league. I’m Spanish and I’d love to play in Spain, that’s obvious,” Raya said this week.
Arsenal are now looking at Bayern’s Leonard Prescott, while the club will also have eyes on other top goalkeepers around Europe if Raya does decide he wants out.
However, while Prescott is one for the future, the direct and immediate replacement for Raya has already been watched by Arsenal and crucially, is already in England.
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Bukayo Saka's injury is a BIG problem for Arsenal 😡 Let's hear your ideas on how they replace him 👇
There are plenty of good goalkeepers in Europe and England right now but you have to say that Aston Villa’s newboy, Zion Suzuki, is looking the real deal.
Suzuki has looked a breath of fresh air already this season for the Villans and his performance today in the win over Man City only emphasised things further.
Much like Raya with Arsenal, Suzuki is acting as the first line of attack for Villa right now. As we saw in the World Cup, his distribution is second to none, both with his hands and his feet.
Arsenal have also looked at Suzuki before, with James Benge reporting the interest in September.
“I’m, told they looked a lot at Zion Suzuki when he was at Parma like just more as a you know if you kind of have to have your break glass in case of David Raya wants to go to Real Madrid or Barcelona guess would be the teams they’d worry about or PSG signing. Yeah, Zion Suzuki was one they liked,” Benge revealed at the time.
In terms of his stats against Man City, Suzuki was involved in making 45 passes from the back, completing 31 of them, with most being within the ‘long-ball’ category. Crucially too, he keeps the ball out, making six saves in the game – including five from close range – to ensure City were kept out.
Put simply, with Villa being a selling club in recent years and Arsenal obviously needing someone to replace Raya at some point, Suzuki is very much someone to consider.
If not, then it will take quite the goalkeeper to be better than what we are seeing from the Japanese ace right now.