Arsenal could be without goalkeeper David Raya for Sunday’s Premier League top-four clash against Manchester City.
Raya was a revelation on loan from Brentford last term, and has continued to uphold the same standards as Mikel Arteta‘s first-choice goalkeeper since securing his Gunners future with a £27m permanent move last summer. However, the Spaniard faces a new injury scare with the worst possible timing.
He played the entirety of last weekend’s 1-0 victory away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League though would then miss the Wednesday trip to Girona in the Champions League with Neto standing in. Raya missing another match, against Man City no less, could be the difference between maintaining pace with Liverpool in the title race or dropping closer to Pep Guardiola’s fourth-placed side.
But with there being a chance the 29-year-old could yet feature, football.london takes a look at whether the goalkeeper will be able to take part in this clash against rivals.
What has been said about Raya’s injury
Raya didn’t even make the bench for the midweek match back in his homeland, marking the first time he has missed a European match all season. “He certainly could not play, he’s injured and that’s it. Let’s see how it goes,” was the message Arteta had for the media afterwards.
The Arsenal boss then took questions from the media again on Friday, offering another opportunity to learn more about the goalkeeper’s issue.
“Yeah, we are still uncertain. We have another session tomorrow, another 48 hours, so we have to wait and see. Ben [White] is definitely out, he hasn’t trained with us yet, so he’s not going to be available. No others from the game against Girona,” was the worrying verdict.
And asked for Raya’s specific ailment, he added: “It’s a muscular issue, so we have to wait and see.”
Will Raya be fit to face Man City in FPL Gameweek 24?
Fantasy Premier League (FPL) gives Raya a 75 percent chance of playing despite the assessments and the injury picked up within the last week. Not only could this be a huge blow to the Gunners but also to the 26.1 percent of FPL players who have him in their teams, making him the most-selected goalkeeper on the game.
Among goalkeepers he is the most expensive in FPL alongside Liverpool’s Alisson Becker and is the third-highest scoring this season with 90 points, trailing only Matz Sels and Jordan Pickford.
This is owed to his eight clean sheets and 56 saves made across the previous 23 Gameweeks in the 2024/25 season. Fearing he may miss out, over 226k FPL players have transferred him out of their teams at the time of writing before Saturday’s deadline.
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