David Raya sat down with David Seaman at Sobha Realty Training Centre to talk all things goalkeeping this week.
He also discussed last weekend’s game against Bournemouth and looked ahead to Sunday’s clash with Liverpool.
Here’s everything he had to say on the following subjects.
on how good it is being Arsenal’s number one:
“It’s the best thing in the world I think. This sounds typical but, since I came to England when I was 16 and signed for Blackburn, Arsenal was one of the first teams that I looked up to when I was young.
“I moved here and had friends who used to play here like Emiliano and Hector Bellerin, so it’s a dream come true that I’m playing here.”
on the pathway from Blackburn and Brentford before Arsenal:
“It’s not a typical career. When you get into a first team like this and you’ve played in the lower grounds and the lower divisions, of course it makes it even more special I think.
“I was on loan at Southport for three months and that’s when my career started and kicked off. That’s where I got the confidence from the manager to out me in, to make my debut for Blackburn, so I think all those experiences make you a bit more grateful of how far you’ve come and how grateful I am to be here to just try to help the team as much as possible.
“Playing in those leagues – Championship, League One and Conference – I think it toughens you up in a different way than the Premier League. Sometimes you can take advantages from those situations because you live different stories and environments in different grounds.
“Sometimes we complain about the pitches and all that, but we played in worse pitches down there! We cannot complain when there’s a little hole or it’s too wet or too dry. Those moments make you think about how far you’ve come and how hard you’ve worked to get to where I am right now.”
