I'm going to overlook a few of the errors he is involved in till January next year. I'm putting a lot down to him settling in at a big club, and the defence / midfield getting used to him. Small sample size but I'm not very happy about his impact so far (besides, in my opinion, him being better at handling crosses into the box). From January onwards we should know if he is a net positive, net negative or just a pointless signing.

It's such a dumb situation it's increasingly irritating just to think about. Imagine if we'd burnt £30m for this back in the day, you have to laugh.

Wenger would never.

he's spending all this money and wasting time trying to fix his original fuck up: letting world cup winner emi martinez get away because leno (a GK he knew he didn't rate because of his feet) couldn't lose his #1 status due to injury. fuck off with this shit.

Mirth We have wasted 60m+, and also forgone Leno's value till it depreciated if we just kept Emi that summer. Our team would have been improved in other areas much earlier than now.

      Clrnc Agree we shouldn't have sold him but ultimately I don't think there's a whole lot of difference between Martinez, Ramsdale or Raya. Tbh I'd even argue Leno's actually the best goalkeeper of them all, he's just not very good with the ball at his feet.

        Sicario2 - Tier 1 not sure that graphic really says anything all that insightful. There's a whole lot more going on that's not represented in those stats (have personally always felt stats struggle to articulate a GK's performance).

          They might as well be stats for CM too as they don't contain any real goalkeeper stats. Also lack some context which most stats do. Is the opposition CB winning a header from a long ball and the keeper passing it to Chelsea's striker on the penalty spot equally included in the "possession lost" category?

          Question for the group - so I get that Mudryk's goal was a fluke but can someone better informed explain Raya's positioning? I get he's trying to be proactive but I feel like he's liable to be caught out with crosses to the back post.

          Mirth he's been fairly shaky at times for Villa and reports during the summer were that Emery was trying to get rid of him. Think he's bought into his own hype too much.

            Sicario2 - Tier 1 stats look wonky. According to whoscored Ramsdale has 77.1 pass competition and Raya has 77.8. So whats "pass accuracy"here?

              Main thing making him look bad is that he’s being asked to play as an outfield player and the defenders are being asked to trust him like one.

              The issue is the execution is off at the moment. He’s asked to take his time and pick the right pass, what’s
              happening instead is he’s taking his time and missing the right pass, at least in phases of the game.

              Defenders are asked to trust him and use him, they’ve taken that literally and just use him all the time, even when it’s not right.

              We will work it out, and it’ll start looking a lot more nuanced vs this literal interpretation we are getting now.

              @"Don Pacifico"#p2396

              Although, I agree those stats might not be all encompassing, I would like to see where Ramsdale is proving to be statistically superior.

                Gurgen worth remembering Rayas had our first choice back 4 in front of him while Ramsdale had a lot of games with that abomination of a backline Arteta experimented with at the start of the season.

                    daredevil that's fair but I guess my overarching assessment is that whilst stats can tell us many things, when it comes to sports (particularly football) they can't give us as holistic an understanding of performance because they're often limited in their capacity to take into account relevant context (which I find even more true when it comes to goalkeeping).

                    To give an example I've seen stats used to show Raya as a superior 'keeper, whilst the same stats suggested Leno was the best in the league and Ederson one of the worst. If it's that simple, why is Leno at Fulham (not getting a game for his national team) and Ederson is at City (winning all the trophies)? In goalkeeping (much like other positions), your stats are dictated by how the manager wants you to play (the style of football) and I have no doubt that Raya better aligns with how Arteta wants his GK to play but I'm yet to be convinced he's a tangible upgrade on Ramsdale in terms of how well he's played.

                        Don Pacifico the stats don't say that Leno is a better GK, that would be your own reading of them. Stats can tell you that Leno is a better shot-stopper than Ederson, which would obviously be true. Stats can also tell you just as easily that Ederson is a better passer than Leno.