Chelsea vs Arsenal: Player Ratings and Match Reaction

[Letters]

I kind of assumed that went without saying

Obviously doesn’t excuse Raya as his positioning was terrible but the intent of that mishit cross was to reach Sterling I think it was at the far post.

I mention it because some of the pundits on MoTD were claiming otherwise.
But as Lineker correctly noted, he wasn’t even looking at the goal.
I don’t actually blame Raya for that one, it was a freak goal.
I do blame him for passing the ball out to the Chelsea players and us having to scramble around trying to stop them scoring
Oh the plus side there was a good one where he dove* at the attackers feet to claim the ball well like they did in the 70s. That was a good bit of goalkeeping.
But overall he’s getting more wrong than right and while I’m not sure it’s actually cost us any points yet it’s surely only a matter of time.

The Chelsea ‘keeper was culpable for the Rice goal of course.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I mention it because some of the pundits on MoTD were claiming otherwise.
But as Lineker correctly noted, he wasn’t even looking at the goal.
I don’t actually blame Raya for that one, it was a freak goal.
I do blame him for passing the ball out to the Chelsea players and us having to scramble around trying to stop them scoring
Oh the plus side there was a good one where he dove* at the attackers feet to claim the ball well like they did in the 70s. That was a good bit of goalkeeping.
But overall he’s getting more wrong than right and while I’m not sure it’s actually cost us any points yet it’s surely only a matter of time.

The Chelsea ‘keeper was culpable for the Rice goal of course.

His positioning was awful. If Mudryk hadn’t have mishit the cross it would have been there to be headed or tapped in by Sterling at the far post. As a goalkeeper you need to be able to read the direction of travel of the ball and adjust yourself accordingly….had he been positioned in the middle of the goal it wouldn’t have gone in it’s as simple as that

[WMUG]

My best guess is he was positioning himself for the low cross so he could dive out and claim it. Did that a few times against City.

[HCZ_Reborn]

There is something to be said about being careful about signing goalkeepers who have never played at the top level of football. You can argue that when we signed Ramsdale he was 23, young and on a learning curve.

Yet with Robert Sánchez and David Raya we see examples of two keepers who frankly look completely out of their depth, they panic and flap because they are playing for sides where in many games they aren’t going to have a lot to do but need to stay switched on.

Arteta as he’s prone to do will persist with Raya because he thinks long term he will be proved right as to his superiority. He’s tracked Raya for at least three years, so in essence he was the goalkeeper he wanted. But like with other players he persists with. Zinchenko, Willian, Havertz etc I think it’s about putting hubris above team considerations

[Letters]

His positioning was awful. If Mudryk hadn’t have mishit the cross it would have been there to be headed or tapped in by Sterling at the far post. As a goalkeeper you need to be able to read the direction of travel of the ball and adjust yourself accordingly….had he been positioned in the middle of the goal it wouldn’t have gone in it’s as simple as that

I was going to argue against this but I had a look again and…yeah, his positioning wasn’t great.
It was still a bit unlucky but he didn’t help himself

[Marc Overmars]

I think he was standing where he was because he was preparing to come and claim the cross, which he’s usually confident enough to do effectively. The way it flew in was clearly fluke though so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt with that.

It’s what happened after that concerns me more. He’s obviously been instructed to play with his feet and that’s all well and good but I haven’t seen anything so far that suggests he’s capable of doing that to a high level like Ederson and Alisson.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I think he was standing where he was because he was preparing to come and claim the cross, which he’s usually confident enough to do effectively. The way it flew in was clearly fluke though so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt with that.

It’s what happened after that concerns me more. He’s obviously been instructed to play with his feet and that’s all well and good but I haven’t seen anything so far that suggests he’s capable of doing that to a high level like Ederson and Alisson.

Ramsdale can be a bit suspect playing it out but I’ve no doubt he’s less of a liability than Raya

[Mac76]

Ramsdale can be a bit suspect playing it out but I’ve no doubt he’s less of a liability than Raya

Is any goalie 100% perfect? no they're not

Arteta is placing almost impossible standards on that position or at least Ram's contribution to it

I think Ram is one of the reasons why the club has got closer to the fans again, OK that doesn't give him a free pas to cock up regularly but the point is he wasn't - i think there was a period last season when he dropped off a bit but was still the measure of most PL goalies

I think I'd only prefer Edison over him in terms of PL keepers atm ( btw I suspect we will end up buying Edison at the point Pep thiinks he's past it and it will be another Cech situation where he doesn't give a sh*t and just picks up the money)

[HCZ_Reborn]

Is any goalie 100% perfect? no they're not

Arteta is placing almost impossible standards on that position or at least Ram's contribution to it

I think Ram is one of the reasons why the club has got closer to the fans again, OK that doesn't give him a free pas to cock up regularly but the point is he wasn't - i think there was a period last season when he dropped off a bit but was still the measure of most PL goalies

I think I'd only prefer Edison over him in terms of PL keepers atm ( btw I suspect we will end up buying Edison at the point Pep thiinks he's past it and it will be another Cech situation where he doesn't give a sh*t and just picks up the money)

Yeah I think Ederson is probably pound for pound the best keeper in the league.

[Mac76]

dove*

I don't know what you're footnote was going to say but this is ofc an Americanism and therefore IMO should not be used on this board

(even though I quite like it )