Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya was hailed by his manager Mikel Arteta and Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini after the Spaniard’s miraculous double save earned his side a 0-0 draw in the Champions League on Thursday.
But for Raya saving Mateo Retegui‘s 51st-minute penalty and then somehow springing across his goal to claw out the same player’s headed rebound effort, Arsenal could have begun their group games with a damaging defeat away to the Serie A side.
“I witnessed two of the best saves I’ve ever seen in my career from David in that moment,” Arteta said.
“If you can’t win, you have to take the point. We started well, then we lost control and were very inconsistent. We didn’t suffer defensively, apart from the penalty.”
Atalanta manager Gasperini was equally in awe.
“He’s a cat. The first save is good but the rebound is unbelievable. The goalkeeper has been crucial,” the Italian coach said.
Raya was modest about his effort, saying he had been lucky and also paid tribute to Arsenal’s goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana who he consulted while VAR checked the penalty decision.
“It was a long time to decide if it was a penalty so I took the decision to go to the side and I went to speak with the goalie coach about where to go and where not to go,” he said.
“He helped me a lot in every aspect so credit to him.”
While it was a solid start by Arsenal, Arteta was less happy with his team’s performance as they offered little in the way of attacking threat against last season’s Europa League winners.
“We had moments with the ball but we never got it into dominance or threat,” he said.
“The first 25 minutes we read their approach really good. After that we lost control of the game.”
Information from Reuters contributed to this report.