David Raya’s outstanding reaction save to deny Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins has won the Premier League Save of the Month award for August.
Ou shot-stopper had two of the shortlisted contenders for the prize, but it was his sensational stop at Villa Park that beat his effort against Wolves as well as his fellow shot-stoppers across the division to land the accolade for the first time in his career.
The Spanish international’s incredible moment came in the 54th minute with the scores tied at 0-0. A deflected shot sent him scrambling towards his goalline, and after cannoning off the crossbar the ball fell kindly to Watkins to simply head home.
However from a seemingly-stranded position on his goalline, David lept up to tip away the England striker’s header and set us on our way to a 2-0 victory.
Speaking post-match, he said: "I'm on the floor so I try to get up and I can't reach it. I just see Ollie going in there so I react as quickly as possible I put my hand there and there's no one there to get the ball.
"It's just a repetition of things. You do drills and have to save one ball and get up to save another. This time it paid off. This is a reaction one, I don't think it's my best save. I try to help the team as much as possible to win games."
It is the third time an Arsenal goalkeeper has won the award since it was introduced at the start of the 2022/23 campaign, following on from Aaron Ramsdale’s back-to-back successes in March and April 2023 - no club has won it more often than ourselves.
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