David Raya says 14 years of work and preparation have led him to this point as Arsenal chase trophies in two competitions at once. The Arsenal goalkeeper, who first moved to England in 2014, said he has spent his career getting ready for the final stages of a run like this, with the club leading the Premier League and facing Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals.
Raya’s path to this moment has taken him from Blackburn Rovers in 2014 to Brentford in 2019, where he helped the club win promotion to the Premier League for the first time in its history in 2021, and then to Arsenal two years later. He said the lessons of those years abroad have shaped him as much personally as professionally, adding that the experience is why he feels ready now to compete for major honours. Arsenal’s league form supports that sense of readiness: they are unbeaten in their last 12 matches, with 10 wins and two draws, and Raya is on course for a third consecutive Golden Glove award after keeping 16 clean sheets in the league so far this season.
The numbers behind Arsenal’s defence are harder to ignore in Europe. In 22 Champions League games started together by Raya, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, Arsenal have conceded 11 goals and kept 13 clean sheets. That back line will be tested again on Wednesday, when Arsenal play Atletico in the first leg of their semi-final in Madrid, and Raya was blunt about the scale of the task. He called Atletico a great team and said it will be a very tough match before adding that Arsenal must show they are here to fight for a place in the final.
Arsenal are one game away from matching their longest unbeaten run in the European Cup or Champions League, set between March 2005 and April 2006, a marker that underlines how deep they have gone into the competition this season. Raya’s view is that the moment has been building for years, not months, and that the pressure now is not only to arrive in the semi-finals but to turn that preparation into a final.