Arsenal are currently gearing up for the biggest game of their season in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain.
Right now, Arsenal’s efforts in the Premier League almost feel like a buffer to their aspirations in Europe, where they are two games away from a famous final in Munich.
Arsenal and PSG will begin their two-legged tie at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday and they’ll both be fighting to face either Barcelona or Inter Milan in May’s final.
Of course, Arsenal did face PSG in the league phase of this year’s competition at the Emirates, winning 2-0 on that occasion.
Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka scored in Arsenal’s convincing win last October — but by all accounts, the French champions are a different team now.
David Raya explains how PSG have improved since losing to Arsenal
That being said, David Raya has actually spoken about PSG’s development in an interview with Amazon Prime.
Raya was asked if he had watched much of PSG in the lead up to Tuesday’s first leg, and the Spanish goalkeeper immediately recalled their efforts at Villa Park.
Explaining how PSG had improved, Raya said: “I think the second leg was a hell of a game against Aston Villa at Villa Park, that was a hell of a game.
“Obviously, we played PSG in the group stages and I think they’re looking like a different team than what they were back then.
“I think they run in a way of pressing all together — obviously I know Luis Enrique from the national team and I know more or less what he does with the players, how they press and stuff like this.
“But it was a big difference between how they pressed us then and how I see them pressing for example Aston Villa. They were all at once and they don’t care what the result is, what minute it is, they will still play the same way.
“And I think they’re adapting to that and that’s how they are growing so much since the group stage to now.”
David Raya compares Mikel Arteta and Luis Enrique
As he mentioned, Raya knows PSG manager Enrique very well, and perhaps he has had one or two chats with Mikel Arteta about the French side’s tactics.
And in the same interview, Raya did actually provide an interesting comparison of the two managers, explaining how they were ‘very similar’.
Raya said: “They are very similar in terms of being very analytical in what we have to do to take advantage of the opponent and things that both say in the meetings, it happens on the pitch.
“So having a manager like this, knowing that whatever he is telling you, whatever he is showing you on the meetings on the pitch it will happen in the game — it makes you even more focused and even more alive to what’s happening in training that is going to happen in the game.”
A match that is very delicately poised, and it’s certainly not ideal for Arsenal that they will face Bournemouth on the weekend in the middle of that tie.
And with that game in mind, Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo made a comment about facing Arsenal following his goal against Manchester United last weekend.
