Raya penalty save rescues Arsenal in forgettable draw

A double save reflects a double-edged display. It could have been worse for Arsenal, it never really looked like getting much better.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

That may be more of an issue for this new Champions League than Mikel Arteta, who seemed content enough to come from Atalanta with a 0-0 draw and an opening point. That was largely thanks to both the intelligence and instinct of David Raya.

The goalkeeper first saved Mateo Retegui's penalty after a quick run to goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana during a check, before somehow getting up to palm away the forward’s rebound. It ensured yet another clean sheet for Arsenal, their fourth in five games this season. If such defensive assurance is going to bring a lot of nils on one side of the scoreboard, though, the increasing question is whether a certain attacking predictability without Martin Odegaard will also lead to more nils on the other side, too.

This game was perhaps a warning for the next few months – maybe months – although the context inevitably made Arteta more conservative. It was of a piece with the 1-0 win over Tottenham in that sense.

Given this was the opening game of a fairly forgiving “Super League” group stage, to add to recent injuries, Arsenal were always going to play it tight around their own box and refuse to commit too many players forward. That inevitably took away invention but a question that is going to rise is whether they are overly dependent on Odegaard for creativity – at least until they just blow away a few teams again. Raheem Sterling, who did offer Arsenal’s best pass of the game on coming on as a sub, may be increasingly important.

This can’t be divorced from the nature of the new Champions League, either. It said much that it took a second-half penalty to finally set things off a bit.