David Raya was praised by Mikel Arteta and former Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman on Sunday, after winning his third consecutive Golden Glove outright.
David Raya had already won at least a share of the Premier League Golden Glove before this weekend, as his 17 clean sheets was only catchable by Gianluigi Donnarumma (on 14 with three games to play).
But another clean sheet against West Ham United on Sunday took Raya’s tally to an unmatchable 18, making him the outright winner. He’s now won the award in each of the last three seasons, winning it outright in 2023/24 and 2025/26 and sharing it in 2024/25.
It was a hard-earned clean sheet at the weekend as well, with Raya making one particularly impactful stop to deny Mateus Fernandes the opening goal of the game.
But David Seaman was just as impressed with what Raya did at the end, arguing that the goalkeeper’s brave decision to come out and try and catch the ball on the corner was the reason West Ham’s goal was ultimately overturned by VAR.
“Massive credit to David Raya tonight,” Seaman wrote on social media. “If he had tried to punch that ball, he might not have got away [with] it, but because he had the balls and the bravery to come out to catch it, the foul was correctly given!”
Mikel Arteta was just as impressed with Raya’s performance, saying: “David’s save, one against one, which is the story of the season again.
“When you talk about magic moments, this is certainly one of the most needed moments as well to pull off with that save. He was incredible. He’s made a few (top saves) to be fair. So, yeah, that says how good he’s been.”
It was a fitting way for Raya to win the Golden Glove outright, and he now has the chance to set a new personal best for clean sheets in a single Premier League season. His previous best was 16, and he’s now at 18 with two further games to play.
More importantly, two more clean sheets in those final two matches would give Arsenal a huge shot at winning the Premier League trophy.
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