David Raya has been great for Arsenal since he joined in 2023, but Luis de la Fuente has not yet made him Spain’s number-one custodian.

Spain’s manager likes Unai Simon of Athletic Club better than the Arsenal custodian, which is a choice that makes sense since Spain won Euro 2024 in style.

For the time being, Raya, who is 28 years old, looks like he will have to settle for a backup role like the one Aaron Ramsdale used to play behind him in north London.

However, Simon got hurt badly in July and is expected to be out for four months.

Raya will get a chance to play in Spain’s Nations League games against Serbia and Switzerland over the break.

Raya did really well against Serbia, and now the Spanish media are talking about how well he played in their 4-1 win away to Granit Xhaka’s team.

Spain’s David Raya was praised for his “confident” play in the air.

Marca, a Spanish source, gave Raya an overall score of 8/10 after giving him a full review of both halves of his performance.

“He was sure in the air,” they wrote. From the video, it looked like he could have reached the free kick that hit the goal.

“With one of his trademark dives, David made a great save to stop Vargas’ goal.” 

“He couldn’t do anything about Amdouni’s goal; he was on a corner by himself after getting past his defender.”

Marca then said this about his performance in the second half: “He was reliable in the air to block or clear everything that came through his area of impact.”

“The goalie for Arsenal played well.”

Sport then said the same thing, saying that Raya wasn’t responsible for Spain’s first goal and that his quick pass for his country’s third goal was “very clever.”

Then Goal wrote, “He did a great job as Unai Simon’s replacement; he couldn’t do anything with the goal but made great saves and showed a lot of confidence when claiming high balls.”

Arsenal still needs to bring in someone to take Raya’s place in the long term.

Arsenal made a smart move on deadline day when they borrowed Neto from Bournemouth, but Edu and his team have now essentially put off making a long-term choice.

The Brazilian is a good addition to Arsenal’s team, but at 35 years old, he’s not going to suddenly face Raya.

Arsenal was interested in Joan Garcia this summer, and they might be again next year at this time.

But it looks like Arsenal made the right choice by not panicking when Espanyol asked for more money than they were willing to pay late in the window.

Raya is clearly a great goalie, and Mikel Arteta will be happy for him to start all of the club’s games as long as he doesn’t get hurt.