While Arsenal - and Raya - have since responded with a 3-1 home win over Burnley, they were hit hard by their defeat away to Newcastle, a game decided by a rather controversial goal. A lengthy VAR review didn't stop Anthony Gordon's goal from standing despite an apparant foul on Gabriel Magalhaes.
But according to Merson, the VAR drama overshadowed more poor goalkeeping from Raya for the goal, with the Spaniard not yet convincing after his move from Brentford in the summer. “Mikel Arteta has gone mad at the end of the day his goalkeeper has sold him up the river. The goalkeeper should catch that every day of the week," said Merson on Sky Sports.
“If you see his position he’s two yards in front of the front post when he crosses the ball. Any other day of the week a goalie comes out, catches that and throws it out to his full-back. It’s just covered over, it’s unbelievable.
“If you watch his positional play, I’m not a goalkeeper but I played with two of the best you’ll ever see in David Seaman and Peter Schmeichel the positional play there was unbelievable. It wasn’t even a great cross it was middle of the goal.”
Another Sky Sports pundit in Jamie Carrager also took aim at Raya recently, saying: "Let’s not get lost in all the VAR stuff. The Arsenal goalkeeper [David Raya] has, again, made another mistake and this is a massive problem now for Mikel Arteta.
“This is a huge problem. Again he’s made the same mistake, like he did a couple of weeks ago at Chelsea, and he got away with it. He hasn’t got away with it here. Look at where he is initially, when the shot comes in initially he’s outside his near post.
“The ball flies across the other side and keep an eye on him: he tells his players to get out, he’s wanting the ball to be called out of play and then he just keeps edging and edging forward. And when that ball leaves Joe Willock’s foot, again, he – the goalkeeper – is outside his near post.
“Now this a recurring theme with this goalkeeper a lot. He finds himself where he’s out of position and he can’t then reach the ball. And I actually think it then has a knock-on effect when you’re talking about the foul, because I think Gabriel Magalhaes is actually stooping because he thinks the ball might evade the keeper and he might have to [head it clear]."
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