Martin Odegaard scored his first goal of the season to help Arsenal beat Brighton and regain their place at the top of the Premier League – but it was their goalkeeper who produced the moment of the match.
With the Gunners holding on to a slender 2-1 lead in the final 15 minutes at a nervy Emirates Stadium, Brighton substitute Yankuba Minteh’s brilliant curling strike from the edge of the box looked destined for the top corner.
Step forward David Raya.
The Spain international somehow produced an incredible piece of athleticism to tip the ball over the bar and prevent Brighton from coming two goals down to level.
“It was sensational,” Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told Sky Sports. “I had a great angle on it.
“That’s what we need from players, we need those performances in the key moments.”
Former England captain Alan Shearer, working as a pundit for Match of the Day, described the save as “one of the best you’ll see all season”.
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“You see all the Arsenal players would have gone straight to Raya to thank him for it because it was a big save at such an important stage of the game,” ex-Republic of Ireland midfielder Andy Reid added on BBC Radio 5 Live.
had dominated large parts of the match, registering 15 shots and limiting Brighton to none during the first half.
Arteta said that the “margin should have been much bigger” and that “it should never be 2-1” with the amount of chances that the Gunners created.
“That turned out to be a lot more difficult for Arsenal than it should have been,” added Shearer.
“They got huge success behind both Brighton wing-backs in the first half with Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard causing all sorts of damage.
“But Brighton changed things at half-time with a double substitution. As soon as they got their goal Arsenal were suddenly under pressure from nowhere.
This is the second week in a row where Manchester City have played before Arsenal and gone top of the Premier League, with the Gunners having to respond.
But Arteta says his squad are relishing the challenge they face as they try to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004.
“We can only control what we do. We’re doing a lot of good things that I think that we have to improve as well,” he said, adding that playing “every three days is going to be a challenge and we are up for it”.
BBC
