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Stats suggest that Raya is a big upgrade on Ramsdale

Who was the better goalkeeper in the 2022/23 Premier League season, Ramsdale or Raya?

Nobody would have expected Arsenal to be chasing a goalkeeper this summer. There are still other areas of the pitch that need more attention, but the Gunners seem determined to add another body in the goalkeeping department.

Despite boasting three good keepers in the likes of Aaron Ramsdale, Matt Turner and Karl Hein, Mikel Arteta seems far from happy.

Just think about this for a moment: The Gunners have three international goalkeepers in their squad currently but want to add another one to increase the competition.

That’s the sign of an elite club, which does not want to rest on its laurels. If Raya joins Arsenal, he can certainly not be considered as just a “second choice shotstopper.” Because he is way too good for that tag.

In this article we will look at the data to see who is the better keeper between the current number one of Arsenal or probably the future number one of the same club.

When it comes to pure shot-stopping Raya has defeated his Arsenal counterpart by some distance. The Brentford man made 4.05 Saves per 90 minutes last season as compared to Ramsdale’s 2.47.

But you might say that is because the North London side have a more robust defense than the Bees. But when it comes to Save %, Raya has come on top again. He boasts a 77.7% Save Percentage while the Englishman stands at 70.6%.

When it comes to Clean Sheets, Ramsdale defeated Raya by a few notches. The former Bournemouth man had 14 Clean Sheets to his name compared to Raya’s 12.

But the latter can’t be blamed for it as he was playing for a team fighting relegation last season.

When it came to conceding a goal through corners, the Gunners man again came out on top. Ramsdale conceded 0.16 goals per 90 minutes compared to the Spanish international’s 0.24.

We have come to appreciate the distribution skills of Ramsdale ever since he took the throne from German international Bernd Leno.

However, it is worth noting that distribution is a skill that Raya is exceptionally good at. In fact he is so good, that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp called him a “Number 10” two seasons back.

Raya launched 23.21 passes last season, completing 9.13 per 90 minutes. Ramsdale figures would shy in front of those numbers, as they stood at 25.16 (attempts) and 2.87 (completed).

The length of the passes in the case of the Spaniard were also more than the Englishman as they stood at 39.5 yards and 33.3 yards.

That means Raya is launching passes further down the pitch and with more accuracy than the England international.

One of the special traits on why Arsenal spent an astonishing £30million on Ramsdale was his ability to deal with crosses.

But yet again Raya has defeated competition from the Arsenal number 1. The Brentford man faced 15.74 crosses in the last league campaign and was able to deal with 8.7% of them. While Ramsdale faced 10.03 crosses and was able to deal with 5.8% of them.

Brentford have been strong on their stance of selling their prized asset for £40million. If Arsenal paid £30million for Ramsdale, adding a few pounds more on arguably a better keeper is not something that should attract eyeballs.

Other stats of Raya include 154 Saves in the league last season (ranked number 1), 64 Saves from Shots Outside the Box (number 1), 50 Crosses Caught (number 2), 1882 Touches (number 1) and 410 Long Passes Completed (number 1).

At 27 years, he is at the peak of his powers and would not be moving to the Emirates Stadium if he was to play second fiddle to Aaron Ramsdale.

At the moment the former is a more rounded keeper than the latter. But that does not mean that the Englishman will certainly lose his place.

Competition for the top spot in the goalkeeping department will get massive, if the London side acquire the services of the Spanish international.

The competition will rise in the squad and so will the excitement in Arsenal’s footballing circles.

Writer – Yash Bisht

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Tags Aaron Ramsdale

5 Comments

  1. I do think raya is a very strong gk, and would be a very strong challenge to ramsdale (I don’t want to say I think he’s better as we might not sign him!), but i do think most of those stats are very hard to judge, given the differences between how Brentford and arsenal play.
    Save%, for example, will depend heavily on where they’re facing the shots from – inside the box or outside, from what kinds of angles, and are the attackers generally under a lot of pressure when they shoot, or are they often wide open? – this will depend heavily on the strengths and weaknesses on the defenders, not just the gk.
    I do think stats have their place, but context is key – you have to go very deep to get anything meaningful in most cases, I think, because football is so varied. Things line xg and, I’m sure the counterpart for gks would probably help. Very difficult to do in a short article imo.
    Anyway, I think raya would improve us – I like ramsdale, and I want to see him get better with us, but having a very strong competitor could push him forward in the long run.
    As others have said, it would be strange to spend so much when we do have a good no1 currently, who’s only recently been signed, but then, we signed havertz, so who knows. I can’t see us selling ramsdale in the short term, whatever happens with raya.

  2. Yes Raya does face the music more often than not, he’s older and better with the ball at his feet.
    But does that warrant a knee jerking changes between the sticks?

    Ramsdale in my opinion does need something to keep him honest, but Turner is a good goalie that has been developing ring rust quietly, so we can’t honestly says he fails us.

    But this is the second time the gaffer has been after the Spaniard, his steely determination could land him his man once and for all.

  3. I don’t think we need a goal keeper for now because ramsdale is much doing good and turner can still do much better

  4. For sure, we would be a much better team with Raya between the sticks.

    But a whopping 40M plus all the added background drama we can expect from both Ramsdale and Turner. Not sure if it will be worth it at this late stage of the window.

    Just trust the process!

  5. Honesty, objectivity and fairness will win us trophies. Raya is a giant leap forward from Ramsdale. That doesn’t say the latter is a bad GK, they’re just not on par and it can only benefit everybody, players, staff and fans to be truthful when it comes to these things.

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