Arsenal’s David Raya looks set to take up Spain’s starting goalkeeper role, at least for the next couple of months.

Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya will be very proud of his success with Spain over the summer, helping them to win Euro 2024, but he often had to play a backup role to Unai Simon at the tournament.

Raya did start one game against Albania, keeping a clean sheet, but he was on the bench for the remainder of the tournament.

Yet perhaps now the stars have aligned for the Arsenal man to finally take that number-one spot for his country.

Back in July, Simon was ruled out of action for four months following wrist surgery. He’s expected to miss at least the September and October international breaks, if not the November break as well.

Meanwhile, Raya couldn’t have timed his strong club form any better.

The goalkeeper is up for Arsenal’s Player of the Month following his two clean sheets in three games, and he was named in WhoScored’s Premier League Team of the Month for August. He was also recently named in the 2023/24 PFA Team of the Year.

It’s no surprise that Wednesday’s edition of Marca suggests Raya will be Spain’s starting goalkeeper against Serbia on Thursday.

Should he impress, the role could start to become his on a more permanent basis.

Speaking about that possibility, Raya remained humble, saying: “I come to give as much as possible and I don’t know if I’m going to play because there are two other great goalkeepers.

“If it ends up being me, I will give as much as possible, not only for me, but also for the group.”

Raya has made six career appearances for Spain so far, keeping three clean sheets and conceding just three goals.